Cigarette smoking duration mediates the association between future thinking and norepinephrine level

Fixating on the present moment rather than considering future consequences of behavior is considered to be a hallmark of drug addiction. As an example, cigarette smokers devalue delayed consequences to a greater extent than nonsmokers, and former smokers devalue delayed consequences more than nonsmokers, but less than current smokers. Further, cigarette smokers have higher norepinephrine levels than nonsmokers, which is indicative of poor future health outcomes. It is unclear how duration of cigarette smoking may impact these associations. The current secondary analysis of publicly available data investigated whether extent of future thinking is associated with smoking duration, as well as norepinephrine level, in a large national US sample (N = 985) of current, former, and never smokers. Individuals scoring lower on future thinking tended to smoke for longer durations and had higher norepinephrine levels relative to individuals scoring higher on future thinking. In addition, duration of cigarette abstinence interacted significantly with future thinking and smoking duration for former smokers. Specifically, the mediation relationship between future thinking, smoking duration, and norepinephrine level for former smokers was strongest at shorter durations of cigarette abstinence and decreased as a function of increasing duration of cigarette abstinence. Overall, results from this study suggest the potential importance of implementing smoking cessation treatments as early as possible for smokers and support future thinking as a potential therapeutic target for smoking cessation treatment.