The relation between fatigue severity and anxious arousal, negative affect, and emotion dysregulation among adult e-cigarette users

ABSTRACT

Background: Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has risen dramatically in the United States. Research on combustible cigarette use has indicated that mental health symptoms and disorders are among the most important factors related to the maintenance and relapse of use. There is emerging research that suggests mental health symptoms, such as anxiety and negative affect, are overrepresented among e-cigarette users and that these factors are related to more frequent use of e-cigarettes. Yet, little is known about individual difference factors that may be associated with some of the most common mental health symptoms among e-cigarette users. Objective: Clinically significant fatigue may be one individual difference factor related to greater anxiety and distress and dysregulated emotional states more generally among e-cigarette users. Unfortunately, past work has yet to explore this relation. Method: Thus, the current study sought to evaluate clinically significant fatigue severity and its relation to negative affect, anxious arousal, and emotion dysregulation among 525 adult e-cigarette smokers (50.9% female, M_age= 35.25 years, SD = 10.10). Results: Results indicated that severe fatigue was significantly related to negative affect (p < 0.001), anxious arousal (p < 0.001), and emotion dysregulation (p < 0.001); effects that were evident after adjusting for a range of other factors (e.g. combustible cigarette use). Conclusions: These novel empirical results highlight the severity of fatigue as a potentially important construct in efforts to better understand common mental health problems among e-cigarette users.

KEYWORDS:

• e-cigarettes
• fatigue
• anxiety
• negative affect
• emotion dysregulation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was not supported by any funding.