Altered spontaneous activity in young chronic cigarette smokers revealed by regional homogeneity

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of the smokers and non-smokers

	Smokers	non-smokers
Demographic variables
N	45	44
Age, years, mean ± SD	27.9 (5.6)	26.3 (5.8)
Range, years	19-39	19-38
Sex (female/male)	8/37 (17.8%)	10/34 (22.7%)
Subjects’ education, years, mean ± SD	13.1 ± 3.0 ^a	15.0 ± 2.6
Handedness, right/left (n)	43/2	43/1
Married	19 (42.2%)	15 (34.1%)
Drinker/never-drinker ^b	31/14	18/26
Age at start of smoking, mean ± SD	18.0 ± 4.3	―
Smoking initiation age range (years)	11-30	―
Years smoking, mean ± SD	10.2 ± 5.8	―
Range, years	1.5-21	―
Cigarettes per day	20.3 ± 7.6
Range, cigarettes per day	10-40	―
Smoking cravings ^c	6.41 ± 1.7	―
Range, scores	3-10	―

^a significantly different from control group, p < 0.01.
^b three participants reported drinking more than once a week among smokers and no non-smoking participants reported drinking more than once a week.
^c Before MRI acquisition run, participants were asked to rank their craving from 0 (“not at all”) to 10 (“extreme”).

ISSN: 1744-9081