Table 2 Summary of the effects of nicotine on performance
From: The effects of caffeine, nicotine, ethanol, and tetrahydrocannabinol on exercise performance
Nicotine | |||
|---|---|---|---|
WADA status: in order to detect potential patterns of abuse, nicotine has been placed on WADA’s 2012 monitoring program | |||
Acute effect | Effect on performance | Nicotine dose | Reference |
Likely delayed development of (central) fatigue by nicotine receptor activation and/or dopaminergic pathways; no evidence of altered substrate metabolism or cardiorespiratory effects | 17% improvement in time to exhaustion | 7 mg nicotine patch per 24 hours | Mundel et al. [93] |
No mechanism proposed | No effect on anaerobic performance (Wingate test) | nicotine gum | Meier [94] |
Unclear | Improvement in the degree in a real-life motor task, i.e. handwriting (more pronounced in smokers than non-smokers) | 2 and (4 mg) nicotine gum | Tucha et al. [95] |
No mechanism proposed | No effect on cognitive functioning | 2 and 4 mg nicotine gum | Heishman et al. [96] |
No mechanism proposed | No effect on speed and accuracy of motor activity among non-smokers (but improvements in smokers) | 2 and 4 mg nicotine gum | Hindmarch et al. [97] |
Likely by the action of nicotine on cholinergic pathways | Positive effects on fine motor abilities like finger tapping | 2 mg intranasal | West et al. [98] |