(girls: 31%, boys: 29%), only one withdrawal symptom- restlessness- was elevated in the adult smokers over their adolescent counterparts suggesting that many nicotine withdrawal symptoms emerge during nicotine abstinence simply after becoming a smoker (defined here as smoking 100 or more cigarettes lifetime). While it has been suggested that nicotine withdrawal symptoms in adolescents may reflect mood fluctuations associated with adolescence and not necessarily nicotine withdrawal (Prokhorov et al., 2005), our findings show that adolescent reports of withdrawal are highly consistent with adult reports, with the exception of higher levels of nervousness in girls and boys, irritability in girls and sleep problems in boys. This difference in nicotine withdrawal-related nervousness found in this study may not simply reflect an age difference, but may indicate a possible cultural difference in the way different populations of smokers perceive or define “nervousness” within the context of nicotine withdrawal as assessed by the CIDI (Cottler et al., 1991). In other words, the Australian interpretation of “nervousness” may simply be different. While the prevalence rates of other DSM-IV nicotine withdrawal items closely approximated previous reports of nicotine withdrawal symptoms in U.S. samples of adult (Breslau et al., 1992) and adult male veteran (Xian et al.,
