14 DAY TRIAL // According to a new scientific study, it would appear that past histories of cigarette abuse may be linked to an impairment in mental functions later on in life. The researchers behind the investigation found that this is especially true for women, although men are not entirely spared from this effect. Oddly enough, past histories of abuse in both men and women were not associated with such impairments later on in life. The work was conducted on about 287 participants, aged between 31 and 60. Both males and females were analyzed, PhysOrg reports.
The negative effects were recorded mostly in the flow of thinking processes, and also in remembering things. Participants with similar history of alcohol abuse performed very similarly in basic cognitive function tests, regardless of their genders. In addition, it was also revealed that the results of these tests were comparable to the ones obtained by individuals in a control group that had no history of alcohol abuse. Details of this investigation appear in the March issue of the respected scientific Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
The correlations changed dramatically when the same tests were performed on long-term smokers. According to the research team, women who had smoked a lot in the past were more likely than other females who had never smoked to perform worse on certain cognitive tests. The same relation was not found in men, the experts write. However, the study sample was fairly small, and so more work would be needed to validate these results. But the team still has no clue as to why such disparate results were obtained between alcohol and tobacco use. They expected the findings to be more in tune with each other, University of Iowa Department of Psychiatry assistant research scientist Dr. Kristin Caspers says.
She was the lead author of the new investigation, and also the leader of the group that made the study. The expert says that, in the case of smoking women, the cognitive abilities that had more to suffer included reasoning, planning and organizing. These are generally referred to “higher-order” brain functions, the investigators conclude.