Male and female smokers respond differently to nicotine and its effects claimed alum Ken Perkins (’77) in his lecture “Male Smokers are from Mars, Female Smokers are from Venus,” delivered Thursday in Severence. This talk was the first of the Distinguished Alum Series this semester.

A Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, Perkins works in a fairly new field deemed health psychology in which he researches biological sex differences in factors that maintain smoking behaviors.

Perkins’ studies aim to separate the motivations behind smoking into two categories: the first drug related and the second conditional response related. He then attempts to assess their varying effects on men and on women. “When we started looking at behavioral factors as opposed to pharmacological, that’s when we started to see sex differences,” stated Perkins.

A summation of his findings suggests that nicotine is less of an incentive in women’s choice to smoke than in men’s. “Our contention is that women are less sensitive to manipulations of nicotine dosage,” Perkins said. “They are more sensitive to the conditioned drug responses. Nicotine tends to be less of a potent motivating force for them.”

One clinical trial he referenced that supports this theory involved the use of nicotine gum in two milligram doses administered to a group of men and women trying to quit. Over an eight week period there was a much higher increase in withdrawal symptoms in the women than in the men. In a second group that received gum of a higher dosage (4 mg), there was no sex difference in response.

“Clearly the women were getting less benefit from the nicotine gum in terms of curbing withdrawal,” stated Perkins. “They had to jack up the dose to get a suppression of withdrawal in the women suggesting they are less sensitive to nicotine manipulations.”

In studies performed on rats, when in addition to drug infusion, physical cues are occurring as well, dissimilarities in male and female response can also be seen. “This is suggestive of a cross-species consistency,” Perkins said, “and at least the possibility that it’s a pretty profound biological difference that is contributing to smoking behaviors.”

Other interesting differences Perkins highlighted between the sexes when it comes to smoking behaviors included the assertion that women overall have a much more difficult time quitting than men.

“And on top of that they suffer more of the health consequences,” Perkins added. “For this reason I think it’s really important to try and focus on the questions: are there specific factors that promote smoking in women and how can we go about trying to counteract those?”

Males and females also have differing success with nicotine replacement therapies such as patches and gum, men quitting more easily with the aid of such supplements. Men tend to smoke alone more than women, who often prefer to smoke with other people. Women are likely to form stronger associations with the environments they smoke in.

Perkins ended his lecture stressing the potential relationship of his findings to drug response research in general.

“There is no real reason this should be specific to smoking,” he said. “Alcohol studies have also shown sex differences.”