Cigarette smoking and impulsivity in bipolar disorder

Objectives: There is a high prevalence of smoking among individuals with bipolar disorder, yet there have been few efforts to identify potential contributing factors as a means of improving prevention and treatment approaches. The goal of this study was to examine the association between impulsivity and the initiation or maintenance of smoking in bipolar disorder. Methods: Participants comprised 97 adolescents and adults, ages 1650, with bipolar I disorder who were experiencing a mixed or manic episode at the time of study enrollment. Participants completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale-11 (BIS-11) as a self-report indicator of trait impulsivity, and the Logan Stop-Signal Task (SST), Delayed Reward Task (DRT), and Degraded Stimulus Continuous Performance Task (DSCPT) as behavioral measures of impulsivity. Results: Current smokers (34%) and former smokers (23%) generally reported higher trait impulsivity on the BIS-11 than never smokers (43%), with minimal evidence for differences among the two ever-smoking groups. No differences in impulsivity by smoking status emerged on the behavioral measures. Conclusions: Trait impulsivity is associated with the initiation, but not necessarily the maintenance, of cigarette smoking in adolescents and adults with bipolar disorder. Our findings provide no evidence that smoking is associated with impulsive responding on cognitive tasks during a symptomatic period during which impulsivity is elevated.