Nicotine Helps Schizophrenia Patients with Attention and Memory Problems

[The Straight Story]

Nicotine Helps Schizophrenia Patients with Attention and Memory Problems
Main Category: Schizophrenia News

Cigarette smoking may improve attention and short-term memory in persons with schizophrenia by stimulating nicotine receptors in the brain, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers in the June issue of The Archives of General Psychiatry.

Persons with schizophrenia smoke two to three times more than smokers without mental illness, said the researchers. They found that when study subjects with schizophrenia stopped smoking, attention and short-term memory were more impaired, but, when they started smoking again, their cognitive function improved. No effects from stopping or resuming smoking were observed in smokers without mental illness.

Participants with and without schizophrenia were then asked to smoke while taking a drug called mecamylamine, which blocks nicotinic acetylcholine receptors in the brain, preventing the nicotine from acting on those receptors. Mecamylamine blocked the ability of smoking to improve cognitive deficits in schizophrenia, but not in persons without mental illness. The findings suggest that when people with schizophrenia smoke, they may in part be self-medicating with nicotine to remedy cognitive deficits.

"Our findings have significant implications for developing treatments for cognitive deficits and nicotine addiction in schizophrenia," said Kristi Sacco, associate research scientist in the Department of Psychiatry and first author of the study. She said the results may also help explain the high rates of smoking in people with schizophrenia. She added that this study does not suggest that people with schizophrenia who do not smoke should start smoking.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=26516

[Mojorabbit]

1. It does that with most people

from what I understand? Vague memory of studies done long ago?

[The Straight Story]

2. I can't remember, let me light up and think for a sec

:rofl:

[Cetacea]

13. Yes, this is old news, but perhaps a new study

Studies have also indicated that nicotine prevents alzheimers.
My guess is that it stimulates dopamine production.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

3. I Can Vouch For That, And So Can I.

[The Straight Story]

4. Only 1 of my personalities smokes, is that healthy?

:rofl:

[piesRsquare]

5. Wow, the tobacco companies really ARE desperate, aren't they?

Sheesh!

[Mojorabbit]

6. Cigs are not the only nicotine delivery system.

It does have medical benefits. It is the addiction and health hazards from smoking it that are a problem.
This has been known for what seems to me forever
From Duke university
Suggested lead:There is growing evidence that nicotine might actually benefit some people as long as it isn't delivered by smoking. Tom Britt has more.



The recent decision by the Food and Drug Administration to label cigarettes a nicotine delivery system has drawn cheers from many in the scientific community, including Colleen McBride, director of the cancer prevention, detection and control program at Duke University Medical Center. McBride says there is a growing body of evidence that nicotine actually relieves some symptoms of Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease, and appears to help those with severe depression focus.


"And in fact we might put some of these people on nicotine patches or some type of nicotine replacement therapy for life, because the nicotine itself is not the bad guy - it's the mode of administration."


McBride says there is ongoing research into possible uses of nicotine in a variety of disease treatment programs. However, she says, it is very clear that the side effects of smoking, such as cancer, emphysema and heart disease, make that nicotine delivery system far too dangerous. I'm Tom Britt.

McBride says the benefits of nicotine itself can be compared to caffeine.

Cut 2...delivery system...:20 . . . ( Preview this in a WAV file in 16-bit mono. )

"Nicotine has a lot of therapeutic uses. There's growing evidence that it may be useful in treating Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's - their level of concentration, their ability to focus. Those of us who are caffeine users understand that. Fortunately, coffee hasn't been shown to be a negative or harmful delivery system."

http://www.dukemednews.duke.edu/av/medminute.php?id=2880

Here is another
http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20041106/fob2.asp
Nicotine's Good Side: Substance curbs sepsis in mice

Diana Parsell

Small doses of nicotine can halt the progression of the often-fatal condition called sepsis, according to experiments in mice. The finding, coupled with tests of nicotine on cultured human cells, suggests a pathway to more-effective therapies for the infection-triggered problem.

Twice as many mice injected with nicotine survived at least 3 weeks after sepsis set in than did mice receiving inert injections. Luis Ulloa of the Institute for Medical Research at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Manhasset, N.Y., and his coinvestigators conclude that the treatment works by inhibiting overproduction of an immune system molecule that promotes inflammation.

Other studies have suggested that nicotine may be effective against inflammatory diseases such as ulcerative colitis, which is chronic inflammation of the large intestine.

When Ulloa and his colleagues began experimenting in lab dishes with human macrophages, a type of immune system cell, they discovered that the biochemical acetylcholine put the brakes on the cells' production of the protein called high mobility group box 1 (HMBG1). This protein is one of the family of immune chemicals called cytokines, which play a role in infection-fighting inflammation. In sepsis, however, HMBG1 overstimulates inflammation.
snip
Ulloa expects the findings to lead to the development of new, nicotinelike compounds that can reduce inflammatory diseases while avoiding the side effects of nicotine, which include nausea and heart and blood vessel problems. "However, these are preclinical studies, and future studies are needed to evaluate potential effects of human use" of such compounds, he adds.

Effective new therapies for sepsis could have tremendous medical benefits. In the United States, sepsis kills a third of the 750,000 people who experience it each year, accounting for 9 percent of U.S. deaths. Current treatment consists of antibiotics and critical care to prevent organ failure, but sepsis often spreads too rapidly for physicians to halt its damage.

Pathologist Peter A. Ward of the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor says, "There's every reason to think might ultimately have clinical implications." The goal for treatment of sepsis and other inflammatory conditions, he explains, is to find ways of enlisting the body's natural regulators.

[Mnemosyne]

8. Will it help me quit smoking?

"Nicotine has a lot of therapeutic uses."


:evilgrin:

[jen4clark]

7. An old housemates brother

was schizo and was a chain smoker. When we'd go to the facility where he lived with a bunch of other schizos, it seemed liked most of them were chain-smokers. Don't know what it means, but this article reminded me of that.

[NMMNG]

9. Aye

Persons with schizophrenia smoke two to three times more than smokers without mental illness, said the researchers.

They're also much more likely to abuse alcohol and other substances. It's called "self-medication" and it's utilized to help them endure the symptoms of the illness as well as, in some cases, side effects of medications.


They found that when study subjects with schizophrenia stopped smoking, attention and short-term memory were more impaired, but, when they started smoking again, their cognitive function improved.

Gee, I wonder if they took subjects who had schizophrenia and alcoholism, made them stop drinking for a day then let them drink again they would notice a corresponding decrease then increase in cognitive skills. Withdrawal of a drug in a person who has an addiction will certainly cause them to have a decrease in cognitive skills until that drug is returned to their system, or they have completely detoxed.


She added that this study does not suggest that people with schizophrenia who do not smoke should start smoking.

A hint of rationality or CYA?

[eShirl]

10. this sentence from the article kind-of contradicts your 2nd comment

"No effects from stopping or resuming smoking were observed in smokers without mental illness."

[NMMNG]

11. That's because the people in the study were taking a drug

that blocked the effect of nicotine on the brain. Therefore normal responses would not have existed for them in this study.

[Jonathan50]

12. Well since nicotine is a natural plant product

It's obviously time to make tobacco a schedule 1 drug!

Go big pharma.

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Now introducing Nicotinol!

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