Many doubts fly that the nicotine may be more or the same addictive as the smoking while the following will tell you the truth, the data and the graph comes from the astray site.

Intriguingly, when vapers were asked to compare E-cigarette cravings to cravings for tobacco cigarettes, only 18% believed they were as strong. This is backed up by a 2013 study by Dr Farsalinos which found that users rated e-cigarettes as less addictive than tobacco cigarettes. The same researchers have found that electronic cigarettes wait longer before having their first vape as compared to cigarette smokers (see graph above).

Source: Dawkins et al and La Press

However, the quit rate for other nicotine users is much more successful.

A study by Tonneson and Mikkelson of 69 long term users of nicotine containing products found a cessation rate of 36%. Karl Fagerstrom compared that to a success rate of quitting tobacco of 10% (as measured at 12 weeks). However, the data needs to be treated with some caution, because:



• this was a small study of just 69 users
• success was measured at just 12 weeks (we know that many quitters revert to smoking after 12 weeks)

Success rates with ecigarettes do seem to back the data up – for example another small study by Professor Polosa found that over 50% of smokers given ecigs managed to stop or reduce nicotine usage in a three month period.

The addictive properties of nicotine have not been tested on people in a lab system. But tests have been conducted on animals.

The results showed:

•  animals are more likely to administer other dependence provoking drugs such as such as amphetamine, cocaine, and heroin
•  rats respond better to nicotine with other tobacco ingredients than to pure nicotine

I’ve seen claims that other elements of tobacco can cause addiction, but only recently from a scientist. Konstantinos Farsalinos recently told us that there may be several other chemicals in tobacco, such as alkaloids, alkanes and monoamine oxidase inhibitors, which make cigarettes more addictive. Indeed, a 2009 study by Clemens et al, found rats wanted nicotine more when nicotine was combined with the following alkaloids from tobacco:

• anabasine
• anatabine
• cotinine
• myosmine
• nornicotine

This evidence suggests that e cigarettes, which do NOT contain these alkaloids, are likely to be less addictive than cigarettes. It’s also worth noting that cigarettes have more than 5 alkaloids, and it’s entirely possible that other alkaloids make tobacco smoke even more addictive. Another reason that you may find your e-cigarette is less addictive than smoking is that e-cigs deliver less nicotine than tobacco cigarettes.

In fact in one study, Bullen et al found that a 16 mg electronic cigarette only delivered 40% of that quantity of nicotine. (That’s something that experience bears out, and I usually recommend that new e-cigarette users go one strength above what they use in tobacco cigarettes.) Now, if you are an e-cigarette user you might be rejoicing, especially considering the often-made but unproven claim that e-cigarettes are more addictive than cigarettes.

But Dr J F Etter believes that e-cigarettes need to be more addictive in order to get more smokers off cigarettes. And in our 2014 predictions post, he argued that the first manufacturer to produce an ecigarette that would deliver nicotine faster to the brain would take the market.What do you think?