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. 2008 Nov;117(4):896-909.
doi: 10.1037/a0013296.

On the nature of nicotine addiction: a taxometric analysis

Katherine C Goedeker  1 , Stephen T Tiffany
Affiliations

On the nature of nicotine addiction: a taxometric analysis

Katherine C Goedeker et al. J Abnorm Psychol. 2008 Nov.

Abstract

Taxometric procedures were used to determine whether nicotine addiction is best conceptualized as a dimensional or a categorical (i.e., taxonic) phenomenon. Using data from the 2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH; N = 12,467), results from MAMBAC, MAXEIG, and LMODE taxometric analyses provided strong evidence that nicotine addiction has a taxonic latent structure. Members of the addiction taxon, which constituted approximately 48% of those who reported smoking in the past 30 days, consumed a higher number of cigarettes per day, had stronger craving, higher levels of nicotine tolerance, more inflexible smoking patterns, and shorter latencies to smoking their first cigarette on waking compared with nontaxon members. These findings of a distinct addiction taxonic structure were replicated using a 2002 NSDUH sample (N = 12,224). Finally, the predictive validity of the taxon variable was compared with a continuous indicator sum. The taxon accounted for most of the predictive variance in the indicator sum, but the latter generally showed significant predictive power even after controlling for the former. Thus, these smoking variables may have both a categorical and a dimensional structure.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health averaged mean above minus below a cut plot for research data (left panel) and simulated data (middle and right panels).
Figure 2
Figure 2
2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health averaged maximum eigenvalue plot for research data (left panel) and simulated data (middle and right panels).
Figure 3
Figure 3
2003 National Survey on Drug Use and Health latent mode plot for research data (panel1) and simulated data (panels 2 and 3).
Figure 4
Figure 4
2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health averaged mean above minus below a cut plot for research data (left panel) and simulated data (middle and right panels).
Figure 5
Figure 5
2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health averaged maximum eigenvalue plot for research data (left panel) and simulated data (middle and right panels).
Figure 6
Figure 6
2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health latent mode plot for research data (left panel) and simulated data (middle and right panels).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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