The purpose of the research study was to determine if caffeine intake resulted in higher stimulation when taken after a period of withdrawal
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Caffeine
Introduction
The purpose of the research study was to determine if caffeine intake resulted in higher stimulation when taken after a period of withdrawal. The experiments were done before this study illustrated the effect of taking caffeine in the normal state and a withdrawn state separately. The setup of this experiment would compare the effects of a caffeine dose on both experimental states concurrently. The subjects would put themselves in a state of withdrawal by abstaining from coffee consumption coffee for 30 hours before coming for the tests. On the visits where they were required to be in their normal state, they were supposed to have their normal coffee intake before coming for the tests. Structuring the experiment in this manner would help to answer the common question that coffee consumers always ask themselves, whether taking extra coffee assists in boosting their performance.
Previous studies conducted on mice show that the daily consumption of caffeine reduces the effect of an additional intake of substance. There is a contradiction since in a different experiment that also used mice as subjects showed that the intake of additional coffee after the daily dose still had a stimulating effect. The researchers had two hypotheses. The first was that administration of caffeine on the subjects while they were in the normal state would have less of an effect compared to the same dose of caffeine administered to the subjects while in an abstained state. The second was that caffeine would be most effective in measures of mood and reaction time.
Method
The study chose participants who were screened to make sure that they experience withdrawal symptoms when they don’t drink coffee. The subjects need to experience withdrawal when in the abstained for the experiment to be valid. The potential participants also had to complete a check-up which analysed their vital signs, medical history, psychological disorders, and a urinalysis to test for drugs. After the screening caffeine consumption over a week, the participants were chosen. Subjects who exhibited alcohol, and drug abusing tenancies, a history of neurological disorders, visual acuity that was less than 20/40 were excluded from the study. Seventeen participants qualified for the study with nine of them being women and eight of them being men. Other factors that were taken into consideration apart from the participants’ gender was their ages, weight, education level and estimated caffeine intake from the one-week analysis conducted prior.
The experiment involved the participants coming for four assessments, with each visit being at least a week apart from the previous one. For two of the visits, the subjects were instructed to maintain their normal intake of caffeine. And as for the other two assessments subjects had to refrain from consuming caffeinated food substances for 30 h before testing. Five variables were measured during these four visits the participants’ salivary caffeine concentrations, mood, reaction time, memory and selective attention. For the testing of salivary caffeine concentrations, special cotton swabs were used to collect samples for testing and the results recorded for analysis. The mood of participants was examined using a scale form that they had to fill out. The questionnaire contained the different moods both negative and positive one which would be compounded to conclude how high or low was the mood of the subjects on a scale of 1 to 5. To measure reaction time the participants a visual task was displayed to them. They indicated whether a red dot projected on a screen was appearing on the right or left part of the screen. This was repeated multiple times with a constant time interval to get enough data for analysis. To test the selective attention of the subjects, the researchers used a task that would test their ability to remember characters. A sequence of letters would be displayed to the subjects on a screen, and they were required to indicate whether the letter on display was identical or different to the two letters preceding it. Two sets of data were to be collected one before and the other after the tablet was administered. Subjects were given a 45-minute break after taking the pill and instructed not to eat anything at that time so as to provide time for the caffeine to be absorbed and allow the commencement of the second readings.
The results
The results of the experiment showed that the participants experience withdrawal systems after abstaining from caffeine intake for 30 hours, which was what the researchers had anticipated. The mood score was higher in the normal state than in the abstained state. The difference in mood is as a result of the unpleasant withdrawal symptoms experienced in the abstained state. The improvement of mood and reaction time was more effective when the subjects were in an abstained state in comparison to when they were in normal mode. This change was only apparent in the moderate users because the subjects that were used to higher caffeine intake had developed a level of tolerance to the chemical compound. An interesting find from the study was that caffeine improved performance of subjects in more cognitively demanding tasks when consumed during the normal state. This goes hand in hand with what most coffee drinkers do, which is increasing their caffeine intake on days that they need to perform well.
Opinion
The study had a thorough process that picked the most suitable candidates to partake in the experiment. They called the participants to pre-screen them and also did a physical screening where tests were performed to determine which candidates to pick. And by doing this, they were able to exclude unfit candidates who would have made the results of the experiment inaccurate due to interfering medical condition conditions such as poor vision, alcoholism, depression, and anxiety. The researches took every detail about participants into account so as to see if other factors would affect the experimental results. Some of the factors taken into account were weight, gender, race, daily caffeine consumption, cigarette smoking and birth control pills.
From my personal experience this study has a high degree of accuracy. I tend to consume 1 to 2 cups of coffee on a daily basis and this does not take into account all other caffeinated foods I take in. I tend to have withdrawal symptoms if I skip my coffee in the morning just like the subjects involved the research. My symptoms come in the form of a headache and feeling fatigued throughout the day. Once I do lay my hands on a cup of coffee the symptoms usually disappear, my mood elevates and I feel more alert. I have an extra cup of coffee on days where I have an important presentation in class or I need to do an assignment while I am tired. Doing this always makes me feel a new burst of energy and makes me more attentive to the little details. The kind of boost I get when taking coffee in a withdrawn state versus when I have an extra intake in my normal state varies. The boost does seem higher for me in the withdrawn state, I could attribute it to the fact that I get relieved from my withdrawal symptoms. However, caffeine intake in the two states does improve my performance in both scenarios and at an equal level I would say. This study actually proves that an additional intake of coffee on top of what people take normally has an effect on the users. Studies like these are detrimental in helping us understand how the chemical substances we take affect our neurological system and ultimately our performance, especially when it comes to memory and attention.
Work cited
Addicott, Merideth A., and Paul J. Laurienti. “A Comparison of the Effects of Caffeine Following Abstinence and Normal Caffeine Use.” Psychopharmacology, vol. 207, no. 3, 2009, pp. 423–431., doi:10.1007/s00213-009-1668-3.