The day the earth stood still

By DAN LEWERENZ
ASSOCIATED PRESS
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- For smokers separated from their cigarettes, time seems to plod along, almost standing still. New research at Penn State University indicates that, in a way, they might actually be right.
Time perception, one of the simplest indicators of a person's ability to concentrate, is severely impaired after just one day without cigarettes, according to Laura Cousino Klein, one of three authors of a study published in the current issue of the quarterly Psychopharmacology Bulletin.
"I knew that we would see increases in irritability. We saw increases in feeling of depressed mood. We saw certain hormonal changes," said Klein, an assistant professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State. "This very simple measure was so sensitive to that change. ... We didn't think it would be so profound."
Twenty-two nonsmokers and 20 smokers participated in the study, which Klein conducted with Penn State colleagues Elizabeth J. Corwin, assistant professor of nursing, and Michele M. Stine, a doctoral candidate in biobehavioral health.
With each subject, the researchers let a 45-second period pass, then asked the subject how much time they thought had elapsed. There was little difference between nonsmokers and active smokers, who were within 5 seconds of being right.
But when the smokers were asked to conduct the test in the morning after a day without cigarettes, they overestimated elapsed time by an average of 50 percent.
That comes as no surprise to Lynne Funk, a Penn State student who tried to quit smoking in January.
"When I'm sitting, when I'm bored ... one minute passes and it seems like five," Funk said. "That's when it would feel like time was standing still."
What does it all mean?
It's people like Funk who might be involved in follow-up studies by Klein and her colleagues, who now want to know whether such cognitive disruptions would persist over several days and whether the desire to quit smoking might affect the outcome. Subjects in the initial study were not trying to quit smoking, but only agreed to not smoke for a day for the study.
They are also studying biological aspects when smokers quit, such as how smoking and quitting affect hormone levels, and conducting time-perception tests with caffeine.
Dr. Margaret Jarvis, director of the Marworth Treatment Center at Geisinger Health Center in Danville, said stress and concentration reactions were not uncommon during tobacco withdrawal, but could differ with other drugs.
But, it was unclear from the study whether the impaired time perception was biological -- related to chemicals in cigarettes, or behavioral -- general discomfort from breaking routine.
Timothy B. Baker, professor of psychology and associate director of the University of Wisconsin's Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, said the study results could give smokers a better idea of what they might go through in withdrawal and how to deal with it.