Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T08:17:59.976Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Personality traits and platelet monoamine oxidase in tobacco smokers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

Lars Von Knorring  and
Lars Oreland
Lars Von Knorring*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Umeå University, Department of Pharmacology, Uppsala University, Sweden
Lars Oreland
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Umeå University, Department of Pharmacology, Uppsala University, Sweden
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr L. von Knorring, Department of Psychiatry, Umeå University, S-901 85 Umeå, Sweden.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

A study was made of the smoking habits of an unselected series of 1129 18-year-old men from the general population. Their smoking habits were related to personality traits, intellectual level and platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO). Regular smokers were found to be extraverts, sensation seekers who were easily bored and with a strong tendency to avoid monotony. They also had a lower than average intellectual level, and were more prone to the abuse of alcohol, glue, cannabis, amphetamine and morphine. Furthermore, they had a low platelet MAO.

The results are discussed in relation to the pharmacological reasons for smoking and favour the hypothesis that tobacco smoking is related to arousal-seeking behaviour. Ex-smokers had personality traits, intellectual levels and platelet MAO of the same magnitude as non-smokers: this may be the reason why they were able to give up smoking.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 15 , Issue 2 , May 1985 , pp. 327 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Coursey, R. D., Buchsbaum, M. S. & Murphy, D. L. (1979). Platelet MAO activity and evoked potentials in the identification of subjects biologically at risk for psychiatric disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry 134, 372–381.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Demisch, L., Georgi, K., Patzke, B., Demisch, K. & Bochnik, H. J. (1982). Correlation of platelet MAO activity with introversion: a study on a German rural population. Psychiatry Research 6, 303–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1965). Smoking, Health and Personality. Weidenfeld and Nicholson: London.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1967). The Biological Basis of Personality. Thomas: Springfield, Ill.Google Scholar
Eysenck, H. J. (1983). A note on ‘Smoking, personality and reasons for smoking’. Psychological Medicine 13, 447–448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eysenck, H. J., Tarrant, M., Woolf, M. & England, L. (1960). Smoking and personality. British Medical Journal i, 1456–1460.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eysenck, S. B. G. & Eysenck, H. J. (1977). The place of impulsiveness in a dimensional system of personality description. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 16, 57–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eysenck, S. B. G. & Zuckerman, M. (1978). The relationship between sensation-seeking and Eysenck's dimensions of personality. British Journal of Psychology 69, 483–487.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fowler, C. J., von Knorring, L. & Oreland, L. (1980). Platelet monoamine oxidase activity in sensation seekers. Psychiatry Research 3, 273–279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goode, E. (1972). Cigarette smoking and drug use on a college campus. International Journal of Addictions 7, 133–140.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McManus, I. C. (1983). ‘Smoking, personality and reasons for smoking’: a reply to Eysenck. Psychological Medicine 13, 895–896.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
McManus, I. C. & Weeks, S. J. (1982). Smoking, personality and reasons for smoking. Psychological Medicine 12, 349–356.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Murphy, D. L., Belmaker, R., Buchsbaum, M. S., Martin, N. F., Ciaranello, R. & Wyatt, R. J. (1977). Biogenic amine related enzymes and personality variations in normals. Psychological Medicine, 7 149–157.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Norman, T. R., Chamberlain, K. G., French, M. A. & Burrows, G. D. (1982). Platelet monoamine oxidase activity and cigarette smoking. Journal of Affective Disorders 4, 73–77.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oreland, L., Fowler, C. J. & Schalling, D. (1982). Low platelet monoamine oxidase activity in cigarette smokers. Life Sciences 29, 2511–2518.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perris, C., Jacobsson, L., von Knorring, L., Oreland, L., Perris, H. & Ross, S. B. (1980). Enzymes related to biogenic amines, metabolism and personality characteristics in depressed patients. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 61, 477–484.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rocklin, T. & Revelle, W. (1981). The measurement of extraversion: a comparison of the Eysenck Personality Inventory and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. British Journal of Social Psychology 20, 279–284.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Royal College of Physicians (1977). Smoking or Health? Pitman Medical: London.Google Scholar
Russell, M. A. H., Peto, J. & Patel, U. (1974). The classification of smoking by factorial structure of motives. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society 137, 313–333.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schalling, D. (1977). The trait–situation interaction and the physiological correlates of behaviour. In Personality at the Cross-roads (ed. Magnusson, D. and Endler, N. S.). Lawrence Erlbaum: Hillsdale, NJ.Google Scholar
Schalling, D. (1978). Psychopathy related personality variables and the psycho-physiology of socialization. In Psychopathic Behaviour. Approaches to Research (ed. Hare, R. D. and Schalling, D.), pp. 85–106. Wiley: Chichester.Google Scholar
Schalling, D. & Åsberg, M. (1981). Biological and psychological correlates of impulsitivity and monotony avoidance. In The Biological Foundations of Personality and Behaviour (ed. Strelau, J., Farley, F. H. and Gale, A.). Hemisphere Press: New York.Google Scholar
Schooler, C., Zahn, T. P., Murphy, D. L. & Buchsbaum, M. S. (1978). Psychological correlates of monoamine oxidase activity in normals. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 166, 177–186.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schubert, D. S. P. (1964). Arousal seeking as a motivation for volunteering. MMPI scores and central nervous system stimulant use as suggestive of trait. Journal of Projective Techniques and Personality Assessment 28, 337–340.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sieber, M. & Ångst, J. (1977). Zur Persönlichkeit von Drogen, Alkohol und Zigarettenkonsumenten. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Spielberger, C. & Jacobs, G. A. (1985). Personality and smoker's behaviour. Journal of Personality Assessment (in the press).Google Scholar
Tumility, T. N. & Daitzman, R. (1977). Locus of control and sensation seeking among schizophrenics. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, M. (1969). Theoretical formulation: I. In Sensory Deprivation: Fifteen Years of Research (ed. Zubek, J. P.), pp. 407–432. Appleton: New York.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, M. (1979). Sensation Seeking. Beyond the Optimal Level of Arousal. Lawrence Erlbaum: Hillsdale, NJ.Google Scholar
Zuckerman, M., Bone, R. N., Neary, R., Mangelsdorff, D. & Brustman, B. (1972). What is the sensation seeker? Personality trait and experience correlates of the sensation seeking scales. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 39, 308–321.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed