Mark Nicholson considers himself a recovered drug addict of sorts. His addiction?
“Coca-Cola,” he says.
Or more precisely, the caffeine spike in every can. Nicholson, a nurse, spent years stashing sodas in his car, in his hospital locker, even by his bed. It was frequently the last thing he drank at night, the first when he awoke.
If he didn’t get his fix, he paid: “I’d get this humongous headache and feel like I was going to throw up.”
Nicholson ultimately kicked the caffeine habit with help from a little-known Johns Hopkins Hospital program for people hooked on the drug.
But latte lovers, chocoholics and other caffeine junkies take heed: While this guy’s case may sound extreme, mounting scientific evidence shows that jokes about caffeine withdrawal are no joke at all–and it doesn’t take much to get hooked.
“Some people say it’s all in your head,” says Roland Griffiths, a psychologist and caffeine researcher at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. “We’re able to show, based on a number of rigorous studies, that it’s real and biological.”
In the most comprehensive survey of caffeine-withdrawal research to date, Griffiths and a colleague pored over 170 years of studies and concluded that one small cup of coffee–only 100 milligrams of caffeine–is all it takes to trigger symptoms that include headaches, fatigue and irritability.
For serious caffeine junkies, going cold turkey can be even more traumatic. The latest analysis, published last month in the journal Psychopharmacology, found that some experience flulike symptoms, such as muscle pain, nausea and vomiting, when they go off caffeine. Thirteen percent of people weathering withdrawal symptoms have to call in sick to work or cancel daily chores.
As a researcher who also studies nicotine, cocaine and other often-abused drugs, Griffiths realized that caffeine might be a good model for analyzing the addiction process.
“It’s not cocaine,” Griffiths explains. Yet “it controls behavior.”
Just how much remains hotly debated. The American Psychiatric Association doesn’t recognize caffeine as a drug that causes dependence. But Griffiths says anybody who requires convincing need only hang out at a Starbucks some morning–as Griffiths has done–to watch the regulars roll in like clockwork.
His research has shown that people begin to feel caffeine’s mood-altering effects after ingesting as little as 10 milligrams.
“Just a sip of coffee,” he says.
The drug disappears quickly–typically within 12 hours to 24 hours. This, Griffiths says, explains why coffee is so often a morning ritual: “People are actually waking up in withdrawal.”
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Kris Karnopp (kkarnopp@tribune.com)
