Do chronic cigarette smokers forget people's names?

Do chronic cigarette smokers forget people's names?There is evidence that cigarette smoking encourages the formation of generalised atherosclerosis.' 2 This could impair arterial blood supply to the brain and thus cause a functional deficiency that would show up on psychometric testing.We have just completed a controlled study concerned with this question. Subjects, methods, and resultsTen addresses were randomly selected by specially trained interviewers in each of 11 different geographical areas of Edinburgh.When there was no response or a potential subject declined to participate a neighbour was randomly substituted.From this pool of 110 subjects a colleague blindly matched two groups of 37 subjects each, one group comprising smokers, the other non-smokers.The groups were matched for verbal intelligence, perceptual aptitude, age, sex, educational level, social class, and consumption of alcohol (table).Data on minor psychiatric symptoms, neuroticism, and extraversion were available but not used in the group matching procedure.Nevertheless, the groups did not differ significantly on these variables (table).Comparison of group of smokers with matched group of non-smokers Variable Smokers Non-smokers DifferenceDaily cigarette intake 20 (range 3-35) Nil Duration of smoking (years) 27-5 (range 3-40) -