For more than 170 years, medical literature has documented cases of symptoms caused by withdrawal from caffeine. As the most widely used behavior-influencing drug in the world, caffeine has an effect on huge numbers of people every day. Columbia University's Health Q&A Internet Service says that caffeine use can result in physical dependence, and as with other physically addictive drugs, withdrawal symptoms can result when the caffeine use ceases abruptly.
Headache
Withdrawal headaches have been the bane of many coffee drinkers who have woken up to an empty coffee jar. In an extensive review published in the 2004 edition of the journal Psychopharmacology, Dr. Laura Juliano and Dr. Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University found that headache was the most common symptom reported in association with caffeine withdrawal. The University of Utah says that these types of headaches typically appear within 24 hours of your last dose of caffeine and usually vanish within an hour of drinking 100mg of caffeine -- the amount present in a cup of coffee.
Tiredness
Many people claim that they can't get started in the morning without that first cup of coffee, and there's a sound physiological basis for that claim. Dr. Verna Case of Davidson College in North Carolina says that coffee drinkers build up a tolerance to this addictive stimulant, so that when it is not consumed, they feel more fatigued and drowsy in the morning than if they'd never drunk coffee at all. As Juliano and Griffiths note, fatigue due to caffeine withdrawal is quickly eliminated when caffeine is consumed.
Decreased Attentiveness
Caffeine is believed to boost mental work performance. According to Case, this effect is achieved by activating neurons in an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. Acute abstinence from caffeine causes withdrawal symptoms that include decreased alertness or attentiveness and depressed mood. Juliano and Griffiths reviewed 22 experimental studies that revealed a correlation between attentiveness and caffeine withdrawal. Additional evidence suggests that caffeine withdrawal also contributes to difficulty concentrating and lack of motivation. Parents of school children should be aware of the presence of caffeine in products other than coffee. Chocolate, soda and some medications can contain caffeine, and withdrawal from its effects may negatively affect your child's ability to learn effectively in school.
References
- University of Utah Health Care: Caffeine Use and Abuse
- Go Ask Alice: Coffee Withdrawal Symptoms
- Davidson College: Seeking More: Caffeine and Mental Health
- Psychopharmacology: A Critical Review of Caffeine Withdrawal: Empirical Validation of Symptoms and Signs, Incidence, Severity and Associated Features
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