Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Perception of Thermal Pain

The effects of cigarette smoking on pain perception were evaluated in 18 healthy smokers. Thermal pain stimuli were used to assess pain detection threshold and tolerance and to collect subjective ratings of the intensity and unpleasantness of painful stimuli. After overnight abstinence, pain perception was evaluated before and after 3 experimental treatments. Participants smoked normal cigarettes, smoked denicotinized cigarettes, or remained abstinent. Smoking normal cigarettes produced relative increases in pain tolerance compared with abstinence. Smoking denicotinized cigarettes produced intermediate effects on tolerance not different from the other 2 treatments. Effects were not detected for pain threshold or subjective pain ratings. Results suggest that cigarette smoking can have antinociceptive effects, which may depend both on nicotine and on other factors associated with smoking.