MEN, NOT WOMEN, GRAB A SMOKE TO LIFT MOOD - STUDY

SAN DIEGO - The next time all the men in your office head
out for a smoke, have some compassion. They are not just taking a
break, they are putting their emotions on an even keel.

Contrary to popular belief, men are more likely than women to grab a
cigarette if they are angry, anxious, sad or tired, according to a
study presented at an American Lung Association conference Tuesday.

46or women, smoking is more closely tied to social factors while men
are more likely to say that smoking assuages anger and sadness,
according to the study by Dr. Ralph Delfino and Dr. Larry Jamner from
the University of California, Irvine.

The findings suggest possible gender differences in the effect of
nicotine on the central nervous system, possibly because of different
interactions with hormones, they said.

The study tracked 25 women and 35 men ages 18 to 42 who made three
diary entries an hour for up to 48 hours to record their mood and
smoking behavior.

Men were more likely to associate the urge to smoke with anger or
anxiety and only men linked the urge to smoke with sadness or fatigue.

Smoking seemed to lessen feelings of anger in those men who got angry
more often, and to decrease feelings of sadness in men but not in
women, the study found.

Women seemed to associate smoking with happiness, while men did
not.

``The commonly held belief before this study was that women smoked
more for emotional reasons, but this does not appear to be the case in
the real-life settings measured in this study,'' Delfino said. ``The
results are consistent with the hypothesis that women are smoking less
for mood control than men, and that social interactions may play a
more important role in why women smoke.''

The findings suggest that smoking prevention programs might be more
successful if they had different approaches for males and females, and
if they targeted people according to their personality profile,
Delfino noted.

``For instance, hostile people who smoke for mood-altering effects
might benefit from an anger-management program,'' he said.