Smoking, Memory, and Happiness

People are always looking for new reasons to stop smoking – as if there weren’t enough already.  Two new studies reported online in Drug and Alcohol Dependence provide two further benefits of quitting smoking.  

The first concerns possible effects of smoking on everyday memory.  Researchers from Northumbria University, UK, asked volunteers to remember pre-determined tasks at specific locations on a tour of a university campus; this was a test of prospective memory (the cognitive ability to carry out a specific action at a future point in time, known as PM) in a real-world situation.  There were 27 current smokers, 24 never smoked, and 18 previous smokers in the study. In addition to the PM scores, gender, age, IQ, alcohol use, and a retrospective memory score were measured. 

Self-reported PM results showed no significant differences between the three groups.  However, smokers recalled significantly fewer action–location combinations than the never smoked and previous smoker groups, when specifically asked.  Current smokers remembered 59% of tasks, former smokers 74%, and never smokers 81%.  The authors of the study conclude: “Real-world prospective memory impairment should be added to a growing list of neuropsychological sequelae associated with persistent smoking.”

The second study was cross-sectional, and concerned with happiness, and was conducted at the University College London, also in UK.  It examined happiness as a function of smoking status in ex-smokers of varying length of abstinence, compared with current and never smokers.

Almost 7,000 individuals were surveyed, using two standard measures of happiness.  Subjects were classified as never smoked, smoker, ex-smoker for less than one year, and ex-smoker for more than one year.  The levels of happiness were established after adjustments were made for age, gender, and social grade.  Ex-smokers for more than one year had higher happiness scores than smokers, while ex-smokers up to one year had similar scores to current smokers. Among current smokers, the only characteristics associated with lower happiness scores were feeling depressed or anxious.

This study reveals an apparent long-term benefit of quitting smoking on happiness levels. Previous studies have reported conflicting results, but they did not measure the ‘one year later’ effect.