Effects of cigarette smoking on perception of thermal pain.

Duke University Medical CenterThe effects of cigarette smoking on pain perception were evaluated in 18 healthy smokers. Thermalpain stimuli were used to assess pain detection threshold and tolerance and to collect subjectiveratings of the intensity and unpleasantness of painful stimuli. After overnight abstinence, painperception was evaluated before and after 3 experimental treatments. Participants smoked normalcigarettes, smoked denicotinized cigarettes, or remained abstinent. Smoking normal cigarettesproduced relative increases in pain tolerance compared with abstinence. Smoking denicotinizedcigarettes 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 thatcigarette smoking can have antinociceptive effects, which may depend both on nicotine and onother factors associated with smoking.