Pituitary and adrenal hormone responses to pharmacological,physical, and psychological stimulation in habitual smokers and nonsmokers

Hormone responses to injection of corticotropin-releasing hormone following bicycle ergometry and psychological stress were studied in ten habitual smokers and ten nonsmokers. Compared to injection of saline, significant increases were found in adrenocorticotropin, prolactin, growth hormone, total serum cortisol, and salivary cortisol under all three stimulations except for salivary cortisol under ergometry. Furthermore, the smokers showed significant elevations of all five hormones investigated following the smoking of two cigarettes of the subject's preferred brand. Comparisons of hormone responses between smokers and nonsmokers revealed a general trend towards stronger responses in nonsmokers. However, due to the small number of subjects investigated and considerable variation in the individual hormone responses these differences reached statistical significance only for growth hormone responses following ergometry and salivary cortisol responses after psychological stress. In addition, the circadian rhythm of salivary cortisol was measured on two occasions between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. in the subject's natural environment. The typical circadian pattern of decreasing cortisol levels was observed, with no significant differences between smokers and nonsmokers. We conclude that chronic nicotine consumption may lead to lower responses of multiple hormones not only to nicotine but to a variety of stimuli, and that these alterations do not necessarily affect unstimulated circadian profiles of free cortisol. Correspondence to: C. Kirschbaum