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Nicotine Addiction (nicotine + addiction)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	88%

Selected Abstracts

Multimodal techniques for smoking cessation: a review of their efficacy and utilisation and clinical practice guidelines

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL PRACTICE, Issue 11 2008
V. I. Reus
Summary Aims:, Nicotine addiction is a complex, chronic condition with physiological and psychological/behavioural aspects that make smoking cessation extremely difficult. This paper reviews current recommendations for smoking cessation and the efficacy of pharmacotherapy and behavioural modification techniques, used either alone or in combination, for smoking cessation. Results:, Abstinence rates for pharmacotherapies range from ,16% to ,30% at 1-year follow-up, with efficacy odds ratios (ORs) compared with placebo of ,1.7 for nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), ,1.9 for bupropion sustained release and ,3.0 for varenicline. Behaviour modification therapies have achieved quit rates of between 8% and 43% for up to 1 year, with ORs in comparison to no treatment of between ,1.2 and ,2.2. No direct comparisons have been made between pharmacotherapy alone and psychological behaviour strategies alone. However, combining physiological approaches with counselling significantly increases the odds of quitting compared with either technique alone. Conclusions:, Applying multimodal techniques for the treatment of nicotine addiction is the recommended approach and has demonstrated the potential to improve rates of permanent abstinence in smokers attempting cessation. While the numbers of patients receiving help and advice regarding smoking cessation is increasing, the multimodal approach appears to be currently underutilised by clinicians and therefore smoking cessation strategies are not being optimised. [source]

,To prove this is the industry's best hope': big tobacco's support of research on the genetics of nicotine addiction

ADDICTION, Issue 6 2010
Kenneth R. Gundle
ABSTRACT Background New molecular techniques focus a genetic lens upon nicotine addiction. Given the medical and economic costs associated with smoking, innovative approaches to smoking cessation and prevention must be pursued; but can sound research be manipulated by the tobacco industry? Methodology The chronological narrative of this paper was created using iterative reviews of primary sources (the Legacy Tobacco Documents), supplemented with secondary literature to provide a broader context. The empirical data inform an ethics and policy analysis of tobacco industry-funded research. Findings The search for a genetic basis for smoking is consistent with industry's decades-long plan to deflect responsibility away from the tobacco companies and onto individuals' genetic constitutions. Internal documents reveal long-standing support for genetic research as a strategy to relieve the tobacco industry of its legal responsibility for tobacco-related disease. Conclusions Industry may turn the findings of genetics to its own ends, changing strategy from creating a ,safe' cigarette to defining a ,safe' smoker. [source]

Progression of oral snuff use among Finnish 13,16-year-old students and its relation to smoking behaviour

ADDICTION, Issue 4 2006
Ari Haukkala
ABSTRACT Aims To examine the progression of oral moist snuff use among adolescents and its relation to smoking behaviour and nicotine addiction. Design and setting A 3-year smoking prevention study in 27 schools of Helsinki, Finland, starting with the seventh grade to the ninth grade., Participants and measurements Pupils (n = 2816) completed questionnaires four times, which included information on smoking behaviour, snuff experiments, nicotine addiction (Fagerström Tolerance Questionnaire) and other activities. Findings The prevalence of snuff experimentation rose among boys from 7% in the seventh grade to 43% 3 years later in the ninth grade, and among girls from 2% to 13% for the corresponding period. Among boys, smoking predicted later snuff use in all assessments and snuff experimentation predicted later weekly smoking. The impact of snuff experimentation upon later smoking experimentation was smaller than vice versa. Among boys active in sports, smoking was less common but snuff use was more common. Combined use was common; by the end of the follow-up only 10% of weekly smokers had not tried oral snuff. Nicotine dependence scores increased linearly with snuff use among weekly smokers., Conclusions Despite the European Union sales ban on oral snuff products since 1995, in Finland snuff use is common among boys. Although combined use of snuff and cigarettes is associated with higher levels of nicotine dependence among adolescent boys, the direction of causality is not known. Unlike cigarette smoking, oral snuff use was tried among boys who spent their free time with sports-related activities. [source]

Multimodal techniques for smoking cessation: a review of their efficacy and utilisation and clinical practice guidelines

An exploration of mental health nursing students' experiences and attitudes towards using cigarettes to change client's behaviour

JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRIC & MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 8 2010
M. J. NASH msc pclt bsc (hons) rnt rmn fhea
Accessible summary ,,This study explores the experiences of mental health nursing students in using cigarettes as a means of token economy. ,,The majority of the sample experienced the use of this particular intervention in various settings but also reported that other items apart from cigarettes were also used as part of a reward system. ,,Respondents generally did not like this practice, feeling that it did not work well, led to client staff conflict, was implemented in an ad hoc way and rarely recorded in a care plan. ,,An open debate on tobacco control and the use of cigarettes in behavioural change programmes is urgently required. Abstract Using cigarettes to change client behaviour is a common, yet little studied, practice in mental health care. A questionnaire survey was used to explore mental health nursing student's experiences and attitudes to this practice. The sample was four cohorts of mental health nursing students (n= 151). Of them, 84% had experienced the practice of using cigarettes to change client behaviour in acute wards (73%), rehabilitation wards (28%) and elderly care (14%). Cigarettes were used to change client behaviour in areas such as attending to personal hygiene (57%) or engaging in the ward routine (39%). However, items such as leave (60%) or drinks (tea and coffee) (38%) were also reportedly used. Of the respondents, 54% inferred that the practice did not work well with 46% stating it was not written up in care plans; 52% felt it was an ad hoc practice, 60% inferred that at times it was used as a punishment while 55% intimated that they felt bad withholding cigarettes. There are ethical and moral dilemmas around using lifestyle risk factors as rewards or using client's nicotine addiction as a means of controlling behaviour. The question of whether this intervention should ever be used, given its associated health risk, requires more critical debate in clinical practice. [source]

Co-Morbidity of Smoking in Patients with Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders

THE AMERICAN JOURNAL ON ADDICTIONS, Issue 2 2005
David Kalman Ph.D.
This article reviews cigarette smoking in patients with psychiatric disorders (PD) and substance use disorders (SUD). Rates of smoking are approximately 23% in the U.S. population but approximately twoto four-fold higher in patients with PD and SUD. Many remaining smokers have had repeated smoking cessation failures, possibly due to the presence of co-morbid PD and SUDs. There is modest, evidence-based support for effective treatment interventions for nicotine addiction in PD and SUD. Further research is needed to increase our understanding of nicotine addiction in PD and SUD and develop more effective treatment interventions. [source]

Association of polymorphisms in the BDNF, DRD1 and DRD3 genes with tobacco smoking in schizophrenia

ANNALS OF HUMAN GENETICS, Issue 4 2010
Gabriela Novak
Summary Emerging evidence indicates that the DRD1-BDNF-DRD3 cluster plays an important role in nicotine addiction. We have performed an association analysis of 42 SNPs within these genes with cigarette consumption in a group of 341 schizophrenia patients. The ACCG haplotype consisting of four BDNF markers (Val66Met (rs6265), rs11030104, rs2049045 and rs7103411) showed an association with the risk of smoking (p = 0.0002). Both DRD1 markers tested (rs4532 and rs686) and the DRD3 marker (rs1025398) showed association with quantity of tobacco smoked (p = 0.01, 0.005 and 0.002, respectively). Our findings are preliminary; however, they support the involvement of the DRD1, BDNF and DRD3 genes in smoking behaviour. [source]

Presynaptic nicotinic receptors: a dynamic and diverse cholinergic filter of striatal dopamine neurotransmission

BRITISH JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY, Issue S1 2008
R Exley
The effects of nicotine on dopamine transmission from mesostriatal dopamine neurons are central to its reinforcing properties. Only recently however, has the influence of presynaptic nicotinic receptors (nAChRs) on dopaminergic axon terminals within striatum begun to be understood. Here, rather than simply enhancing (or inhibiting) dopamine release, nAChRs perform the role of a presynaptic filter, whose influence on dopamine release probability depends on presynaptic activity in dopaminergic as well as cholinergic neurons. Both mesostriatal dopaminergic neurons and striatal cholinergic interneurons play key roles in motivational and sensorimotor processing by the basal ganglia. Moreover, it appears that the striatal influence of dopamine and ACh cannot be fully appreciated without an understanding of their reciprocal interactions. We will review the powerful filtering by nAChRs of striatal dopamine release and discuss its dependence on activity in dopaminergic and cholinergic neurons. We will also review how nicotine, acting via nAChR desensitization, promotes the sensitivity of dopamine synapses to activity. This filtering action might provide a mechanism through which nicotine promotes how burst activity in dopamine neurons facilitates goal-directed behaviour and reinforcement processing. More generally, it indicates that we should not restrict our view of presynaptic nAChRs to simply enhancing neurotransmitter release. We will also summarize current understanding of the forms and functions of the diverse nAChRs purported to exist on dopaminergic axons. A greater understanding of nAChR form and function is imperative to guide the design of ligands with subtype-selective efficacy for improved therapeutic interventions in nicotine addiction as well as Parkinson's disease. British Journal of Pharmacology (2008) 153, S283,S297; doi:10.1038/sj.bjp.0707510; published online 26 November 2007 [source]