ArticleBrain and behavior2013
How cigarette smoking may increase the risk of anxiety symptoms and anxiety disorders: a critical review of biological pathways.
Article in Brain and behavior, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 82 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
82 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 179 citations in OpenAlex.
- Smoking and increased Alzheimer's disease risk: a review of potential mechanisms.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2014Pooled it
- Factors associated with dental fear and anxiety among smokers in urban dental clinics: a cross-sectional analysis.BMC oral health · 2026Trial
- Nicotine Exposure During Gestation: From Placental Dysfunction to Long-Term Neurobehavioral Outcomes.Birth defects research · 2026Review
- Depression and Anxiety Symptoms Among Combustible Cigarette Smokers, Heated Tobacco Users, and Non-Smokers: A Cross-Sectional Study in Lithuania.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
- Beta-Blocker Use and Self-Reported Sleep Changes Among Medical Students in Jordan: A Cross-Sectional Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Provider Perspectives on a Tobacco-Free Workplace Program in Healthcare Settings Serving Rural and Medically Underserved Areas of Texas: A Mixed Methods Study on Perceived Resource Availability and Value.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Comorbidity and Familial Aggregation of Mood Disorders and Cigarette Smoking in a Controlled Family Study.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2026Article
- Maternal smoking during pregnancy in relation to adolescent anxiety and poor mental health: A cross-sectional study based on NHANES 2007-2012.Tobacco induced diseases · 2026Article
- From cigarettes to symptoms: the association between smoking and depression in the German National Cohort (NAKO).BMC public health · 2025Article
- Non-adherence to oral antidiabetic medications among patients with type 2 diabetes: evidence from a nationwide multicentre study in a lower-middle-income country.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Association between use of combustible cigarettes and noncombustible nicotine or tobacco products and health-related quality of life in Korean men: a nationwide population-based study.Korean journal of family medicine · 2025Article
- Nicotine dependence and incident psychiatric disorders: prospective evidence from US national study.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Exploring mood and anxiety disturbances across Ramadan: a comparative study of Saudi medical students before, during, and after fasting.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Association between Combustible Cigarettes and Noncombustible Nicotine or Tobacco Products and Generalized Anxiety Disorder Based on Data from the 8th Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2021.Korean journal of family medicine · 2024Article
- Comparative evaluation of cigarette smoke and a heated tobacco product on microglial toxicity, oxidative stress and inflammatory response.Journal of translational medicine · 2024Article
- Risk of Parkinson's disease in people aged ≥50 years with new-onset anxiety: a retrospective cohort study in UK primary care.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2024Article
- Article
- Adolescent nicotine exposure induces long-term, sex-specific disturbances in mood and anxiety-related behavioral, neuronal and molecular phenotypes in the mesocorticolimbic system.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Association between secondhand smoke exposure and anxiety among adolescents: A nationwide cross-sectional study.Tobacco induced diseases · 2024Article
- Chronic nicotine exposure induces molecular and transcriptomic endophenotypes associated with mood and anxiety disorders in a cerebral organoid neurodevelopmental model.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2024Article
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Multiple studies have demonstrated an association between cigarette smoking and increased anxiety symptoms or disorders, with early life exposures potentially predisposing to enhanced anxiety responses in later life. Explanatory models support a potential role for neurotransmitter systems, inflammation, oxidative and nitrosative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, neurotrophins and neurogenesis, and epigenetic effects, in anxiety pathogenesis. All of these pathways are affected by exposure to cigarette smoke components, including nicotine and free radicals. This review critically examines and summarizes the literature exploring the role of these systems in increased anxiety and how exposure to cigarette smoke may contribute to this pathology at a biological level. Further, this review explores the effects of cigarette smoke on normal neurodevelopment and anxiety control, suggesting how exposure in early life (prenatal, infancy, and adolescence) may predispose to higher anxiety in later life. A large heterogenous literature was reviewed that detailed the association between cigarette smoking and anxiety symptoms and disorders with structural brain changes, inflammation, and cell-mediated immune markers, markers of oxidative and nitrosative stress, mitochondrial function, neurotransmitter systems, neurotrophins and neurogenesis. Some preliminary data were found for potential epigenetic effects. The literature provides some support for a potential interaction between cigarette smoking, anxiety symptoms and disorders, and the above pathways; however, limitations exist particularly in delineating causative effects. The literature also provides insight into potential effects of cigarette smoke, in particular nicotine, on neurodevelopment. The potential treatment implications of these findings are discussed in regards to future therapeutic targets for anxiety. The aforementioned pathways may help mediate increased anxiety seen in people who smoke. Further research into the specific actions of nicotine and other cigarette components on these pathways, and how these pathways interact, may provide insights that lead to new treatment for anxiety and a greater understanding of anxiety pathogenesis.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.