Does nicotine paint a complicated picture?
July 11th 2010 20:27
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For a good part of his professional life, Verner Knott, 62, has been hooked on the mysteries of nicotine.
And, no, he doesn't inhale.
A research psychologist at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre, Knott began studying the effects of nicotine about 30 years ago.
Smoking was a public health crisis. Nicotine was horribly addictive. To defeat the menace, it would help to understand its effect on the brain.
A series of tests were designed to explore its addictive powers. Subjects would be asked to abstain from smoking overnight, then attend a lab in the morning.
While they spent extended periods without cigarettes, they were given tasks to perform, while the brain's electrical responses were monitored by using a series of sensors.
"We didn't really understand what the smokers were going through when they tried to stop," Knott said in an interview this week.
"Then you see them breaking down in the lab; sobbing, crying."
Without the nicotine, the subjects performed poorer on tests -- concentration was worse, powers of detection reduced.
When they fired up a smoke, however, the change was detectable.
"The nicotine would sort of light up the brain," said Knott. Subjects had improved memory and better concentration.
In later tests, it even worked on non-smokers who were given nicotine gum or a patch.
This exposed the flip side of nicotine. Could it actually have benefits?
The question is particularly pertinent in the field of mental health, where smoking rates -- especially among those with mood disorders -- can reach 80 per cent.
In other words, had patients found a way to essentially self-medicate themselves with a pack of smokes?
Well, it is not entirely fanciful.
Studies overseen by Knott found that nicotine moderated the effects of depression and helped with the cognitive abilities of schizophrenics.
"It really has two faces. It's an addictive drug and it has potential emotional and cognitive-enhancing properties."
There were weaknesses, of course. Nicotine was addictive, it had side-effects, and its impact on brain receptors didn't last very long.
Knott said the search is now on for "nicotine-like" drugs that last longer and can be narrowly targeted.
He is to provide an overview of his research at a public lecture on Thursday, July 15, at the ROH on Carling Avenue. The lecture begins at 7 p.m. in the auditorium and pre-registration is being requested, either on the ROH website, or by calling 613-722-6521, ext. 6535.
It is one of two talks to be given that evening.
The second is by Dr. Alan Douglass. It will focus on the relationship of sleep disturbances to mental illness.
It is a fine line Knott must walk.
While he is keen to discuss his research, he does not want to leave the impression that smoking has any therapeutic benefits, nor is nicotine a compound to be "promoted" as a means to kick-start the brain.
"We are not promoting smoking. Nicotine is not the way to go."
The effects of nicotine are paradoxical.
While it can lead to more mental alertness, it also calms smokers in stressful situations.
Knott said the difference is how the nicotine acts on the brain's receptors. "It has the ability to stimulate and tranquilize."
Studies are constantly being done at the ROH lab, run in conjunction with the University of Ottawa's Institute of Mental Health Research, sometimes four and five at a time.
Nicotine has even been tested on Alzheimer's patients and, with just one dosage of gum, found to have a positive effect on short-term memory.
Like all addiction, it is a complicated picture.
Imagine, he explained, the daily barrage on the smoker's brain. With just one cigarette, a hit of nicotine is being delivered to cerebral receptors maybe 10 times, every few seconds. Now multiply this by 20 or so smokes a day.
Add to this the patient's existing mental illness, the effect of other medications, and the picture becomes pretty clouded.
It may also point to why cessation can be particularly difficult for the mentally ill. Withdrawal can be tougher, relapse more frequent.
Knott was asked whether physicians treating the mentally ill sometimes put a lower priority on the cessation of smoking, given the patient's more acute problems.
"I don't think it's uncommon for psychiatrists to look at it that way."
As a medicine, nicotine is showing up in surprising places. A study released in 2001 showed the nicotine patch had a substantial effect in reducing the twitches and tics associated with Tourette's Syndrome.
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Comment by Quintin J. Watt
It is these tars which damage the smoker's lungs (and often other organs as well), nearly always weaken the heart and often cause bronchitis and empasemia, as well as other very nasty side effects indeed. I lost two grandparents and an uncle in this way. It can kill you, slowly in the end, and often in the most apalling wasting pain in the process. I have seen it.
ALL tobacco products contain these tars. Pipe and cigar smokers are just as much at risk, in fact more so as the tobacco is more concentrated, if they inhale. And, no, this is not a joke: by inhale, I mean, of course, actually breathe it - as opposed to merely suck it in and out of the mouth as I, as a former pipe smoker, used to do. Breathing other people's tars will have a similar, if usually less concentrated, effect.
I quit smoking a pipe over twenty years ago, when I had hepatitis and have never gone back to it. I was never a cigarette smoker; I found cigarettes tasteless and they did nothing for me. About this same time, I also gave up alcohol altogether - and I was never a big drinker either. I have never gone back to that.
The headaches and migraines stopped. I began sleeping better. The digestion improved. The mental and physical exhaustion lessened markedly and I began a fitter lifestyle. The voice improved - I do a lot of singing. There was no weight gain or irritability on my part; if anything quite the reverse. I was able, as I still am, to go to parties etc. and lose inhibitions and enjoy myself completely, without the need for either smokes or alcoholic drinks. I could go to pubs or bars or similar, as I still do, socially and with friends etc. and simply order or ask for soft drinks with no eyebrows raised whatever. And, of course, the hepatitis began to cure.
I once began to surprise my first wife, when we happened to be talking once about drugs and their dangers:
"There is one drug" I began, "which you can easily buy at any supermaket, and many sweet shops or candy stores and newsagents as well, any time you wish, across the counter and perfectly legally, so long as you are over eighteen. It is not at all expensive, though it is quite highly taxed in most Western countries - and it can kill you!"
"Really?" she exclaimed, astonished.
"It is called" I continued, "tobacco".
Enough said, I think.
Jeff Watt, Mental and Spiritual Healer.
Comment by katyzzz
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Well done on your giving up smoking and alcohol, at least you'll like me the self confessed old wowser and proud of it.