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According to a new study, people who smoke for to reduce stress they only add to their stress.

Psychologist Andy Parrott, Ph.D., of the University of East London said that apparent relaxant effect of smoking only reflects the reversal of the tension and irritability that develop during nicotine reduction. Far from acting as an aid for mood control, nicotine dependency seems to increase stress.

Professor Parrott researched the relationship of smoking and stress, first in adult smokers, then in novice adolescent smokers and lastly during smoking cessation. He showed that for adult smokers, the positive mood changes experienced during smoking may only reflect the reversal of unpleasant abstinence effects.

Mr. Parrott said: "Regular smokers, therefore, experience periods of heightened stress between cheap cigarettes, and smoking briefly restores their stress levels to normal. However, soon they need another cigarette to forestall abstinence symptoms from developing again. The repeated occurrence of negative moods between cigarettes means that smokers tend to experience slightly above-average levels of daily stress. Thus, nicotine dependency seems to be a direct cause of stress."

Turning to smoking initiation and stress during adolescence, Professor Parrott showed that novice smokers report increasing stress as they develop regular patterns of smoking. A study of Canadian school children found that regular and heavy smokers reported significantly higher stress than did non-smokers. Professor Parrott showed once again that smokers can reduce stress only quitting smoking.

However, not a single study found former smokers to be more stressed than current smokers.

All studies found that stress may be caused by nicotine dependency. "The regular smoker needs nicotine to maintain normal moods and suffers from unpleasant feelings of irritability and tension between cigarettes, when his or her plasma nicotine levels are falling," explained Professor Parrott.

Professor Parrott added that the message that tobacco use does not alleviate stress but actually increases it needs to be far more widely known.