BACKGROUND Individuals with schizophrenia show increased smoking rates which may be due to a beneficial effect of nicotine on cognition and information processing. Decreased amplitude of the P50 and N100 auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) is observed in patients. Both measures show normalization following administration of nicotine. Recent studies identified an association between deficit...

OBJECTIVE Iptakalim is a putative ATP-sensitive potassium (K(ATP)) channel opener. It is also a novel nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) blocker and can antagonize nicotine-induced increase in dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Our recent work also shows that iptakalim exhibits a clozapine-like atypical antipsychotic profile, indicating that iptakalim may possess a dual action aga...

Several behavioral studies report that adolescent rats display a preference for nicotine compared with adults. However, age-related pharmacokinetic differences may confound the interpretation of these findings. Thus, differences in pharmacokinetic analyses of nicotine were investigated. Nicotine was administered via acute s.c. (1.0 mg base/kg) or i.v. (0.2 mg base/kg) injection to early adolesc...

When tobacco is smoked, chewed or snuffed, nicotine is absorbed by the lungs or mucous membrane and quickly moved into the bloodstream, where it is circulated throughout the brain. In fact nicotine is highly dangerous to be consumed in any form. The present study was conducted to know the adverse effects of nicotine on the platelet aggregation in cerebral microvessels of mice. Male mice of aver...

Background Nicotine, cotinine and cadmium are harmful components of cigarettes that have an effect on human reproductive function. Although the effects of cigarette smoke on male reproductive function is characterized in several articles its mechanism of action is still unknown. In the present study, we investigate the effect of nicotine, cotinine and cadmium on human sperm creatine kinase acti...

Background: Nicotine can induce sub fertility and infertility in females. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of nicotine on follicular cells proliferative activity in mouse ovary. Materials and Methods: Female adult NMRI mice were divided into two groups. Animals in control group received vehicle, however in experimental group, animals were treated with 0.4mg/kg of nicotine for 1...

Nicotine dependence is a major cause of mortality and morbidity all over the world. Various medications have been tried to treat nicotine dependence including nicotine replacement therapy, bupropion, and varenicline. A newer venture to nicotine dependence treatment is a nicotine vaccine which is yet to get footsteps in common practice. The present review assimilates various pharmacotherapeutic ...

Little is known about the specific neural mechanisms through which cognitive factors influence craving and associated brain responses, despite the initial success of cognitive therapies in treating drug addiction. In this study, we investigated how cognitive factors such as beliefs influence subjective craving and neural activities in nicotine-addicted individuals using model-based functional m...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the relative contribution of occupational vs. non-occupational secondhand tobacco smoke exposure to overall hair nicotine concentrations in non-smoking bar and restaurant employees. METHOD We recruited 76 non-smoking employees from venues that allowed smoking (n=9), had mixed policies (smoking and non-smoking areas, n=13) or were smoke-free (n=2) between April and August...

introduction : according to drug gateway theory, smoking cigarette, especially, low onset age of smoking, is one of the risk factors for future use. objective the present study deals with comparison of nicotine addicts and opiate addicts in order to identify that what differences in personality traits and onset age of smoking exist in these two groups that cause some individuals to appeal to ot...