Effects of caffeine on cognition and mood without caffeine abstinence

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of low doses (75 mg and 150 mg) of caffeine on mood and cognition in healthy people, with minimal abstinence of 1 hr from caffeine. Improvements were obtained in cognition for attention, problem solving and delayed recall, but not immediate recall or working memory, but performance in the placebo condition was close to the maximum, giving little margin for improvement. For mood, there were statistically significant increase in clearheadedness, happiness and calmness and decreases in tenseness. These mood and performance-enhancing effects of caffeine cannot be seen as representing an alleviation of deficits induced by caffeine abstinence, because there was only minimal deprivation from caffeine. © 1995 Springer-Verlag.