Men are more probable to use cigarettes to keep control on their emotions than women. The studies are in contrast with a typical belief that females are more emotionally influenced by cigarettes than men. The study identified men were more probable than women to smoke a cigarette if they are out of temper, nervous or depression. Smoking was also determined to lessen frustration and depression in men.
"Before this research was that females smoked cigarettes more for psychological motives but this does not seem to be the case in the real life setting tested in this research," said Ralph Delfino, the presenter of the work at the American Lung Association international conference. "The outcomes demonstrate that ladies light up less for mood control than men and public interactions may act a more crucial part in why girls use cigarettes."
In Britain 26% of females and 27% of males are smokers. Even though there has been a total drop in smoking in the past twenty years, the volume of adolescent girls smoking has increased from 25% in 1986 to 30% in 1996.
"When considering helping people to stop smoking it is important to know what is going on in their minds and their reason for doing it," mentioned Clive Bates, leader of Action on Smoking and Health.
The research included 25 females and 35 males, from the ages of 18 to 42, who recorded a diary over a number of days documenting their mood and smoking behaviour. The need to smoke was more highly connected to frustration, stress and alertness in males than in females. Feelings of depression or tiredness were related to the need to smoke in men only.
When the males smoked cigarettes they felt less mad and it lowered their feelings of depression. In females smoking was connected with feelings of pleasure which were not documented by the men.
Dr Delfino is convinced that the results indicate gender differences in the effect of nicotine on the central nervous system, perhaps due to interactions with hormones. He states that smoking cessation programmes would be more effective if they were created differently for males and females and if they focused on people based on their personality profile. "For example, aggressive smoking people for mood-altering outcomes might gain from learning how to control their frustration," said Dr Delfino.
Men show a simple and quite self-oriented desire to quit smoking for their own health, and for their own fitness. Nevertheless, women are more probable to say that they want to give up in the cause of their family and kids, or due to pregnancy.
