Question about citing previous research

[edieb]

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I am working on a research study regarding nicotine use, outcome expectancies and anxiety sensitivity. In doing my lit review, I am finding very few theories regarding nicotine use. However, I am finding a lot of studies dealing with alcohol use. A friend in the sub abuse field told me that alcohol theories are really universal to any substance & that I should use some of these theories in my overview of smoking theories. For example, he says I should use the Tension Reduction Hypothesis as one of the theories. However, all the research on it is to do with alcohol, not nicotine/cigarettes. So, here is my question:

1 - Can I use these alcohol studies and just remove the alcohol reference (e.g., "Tension Reuction Theory posits that substances (don't say ALCOHOL) are use in order to reduce drives, particularly anxiety"

Thanks 🙂

 

[deuist]

Med student here, so I'm not up on all of the cognitive theories. I can tell you that nicotine and alcohol work on different area's of the brain---and via different mechanisms. For one, people do not exhibit jittery behavior when they are abstaining from alcohol, even though they might be addicted. I'm sure, however, that you've witnessed smoker's behaviors when they go a while without their regular doses of nicotine.

As far as reducing drive: alcohol works universally to reduce drive by depressing everything. Nicotine only depresses the anxiety that comes from withdrawal. Unfortunately, some smokers will try to treat any anxiety with cigarettes. They may also notice that their methods do not work very well. Think about parties. Do people smoke a cigarette or do they head to the keg when they first arrive? The reason for the alcohol trip is that they want to release some of that social phobia. Cigarettes, while used socially to increase interaction, will not subdue one's fear of being around others.

You could use the substance abuse theory that your friend talked about only if you wanted to take a cognitive approach to anxiety and smoking. I would avoid trying to draw any parallels to alcohol.

 

[Psyclops]

There is a large literature about nicotine use out there I would keep looking.

On another note, nicotine is an interesting drug in that it is highly addictive but it doesn't "rule" your life. What I mean by that is, I think that it should have different models for addiction because if you are addicted and using nicotine habitually it doesn't impede you from leading a normal life for the most part. Even if you quit, if you then relapse it doesn't send you down into a spiral of destruction and failure like alcohol or opiates. So I think that even as adictive as it might be it should fall under different cognitive models. Just some personal thoughts.

Good Luck.

 

[mmcarson]

I am working on a research study regarding nicotine use, outcome expectancies and anxiety sensitivity. In doing my lit review, I am finding very few theories regarding nicotine use. However, I am finding a lot of studies dealing with alcohol use. A friend in the sub abuse field told me that alcohol theories are really universal to any substance & that I should use some of these theories in my overview of smoking theories. For example, he says I should use the Tension Reduction Hypothesis as one of the theories. However, all the research on it is to do with alcohol, not nicotine/cigarettes. So, here is my question:

1 - Can I use these alcohol studies and just remove the alcohol reference (e.g., "Tension Reuction Theory posits that substances (don't say ALCOHOL) are use in order to reduce drives, particularly anxiety"

Thanks 🙂

I think you could mention these other theories if you can't find a construct developed within nicotine research. Although nicotine dependence may differ from alcohol dependence, there may be some commonalities that you can tie together. That is, you can use the existing theories to build a theoretical model in the nicotine literature if it fits. If you do use these alcohol theories, you SHOULD mention that they are models based on alcohol addiction, otherwise it is misleading. If there are no current nicotine models, the results of your study could help develop such a theory for nicotine... you'll be a pioneer, very exciting!