Length of smoking deprivation moderates the effects of alcohol administration on urge to smoke

Although smoking deprivation is often used in laboratory studies to induce urges to smoke cigarettes, the optimal length of deprivation has not been established. Previous research showed that overnight abstinence from cigarettes led to high baseline urge to smoke that potentially masked alcohol's acute effects on urge to smoke (Kahler et al., 2012). The current study examined whether alcohol's effects on smoking urge were more pronounced when a shorter length of smoking deprivation was used (i.e., 3 h instead of overnight abstinence). Using a balanced placebo design for alcohol administration, we found that participants experienced a significant increase in self-reported urge to smoke when administered alcohol after a 3-h smoking deprivation (n = 32), whereas this effect was smaller and nonsignificant when smokers were required to be abstinent overnight (n = 96). Research on factors that heighten smoking urges may find stronger effects if a 3-h deprivation is used compared to using overnight abstinence.