Background: India has one of the highest rates of oral cancer in the world, partly attributed to high prevalence of tobacco chewing. The WHO predicts that tobacco deaths in India may exceed 1.5 million annually by 2020.[1] Aims and objectives: 1) To study the ART, VRT, CRT, in tobacco chewers of duration 1-5 years. 2) To study the immediate effects on ART, VRT, CRT after chewing a packet of Gutka in tobacco chewers. Materials and methods: The study was conducted on 25 apparently healthy male tobacco chewers of age group 20-25 years and equal number of healthy age and sex matched controls. Simple (random and alert) and discrimination times were recorded in both groups using response analyzer (YSRT- 0101). Results and Conclusions: Simple reaction times (random and alert) were shortened in tobacco chewers before and after chewing a packet of Gutka due to the stimulatory effect of nicotine. The discrimination reaction times were prolonged in tobacco chewers before chewing a packet of Gutka and reason is not known. Further studies are needed in this regard. After chewing a packet of Gutka the discrimination reaction times were shortened in the cases; again this is attributable to stimulatory effect of nicotine. 

Keywords: Gutka; Reaction time; Tobacco chewers.