Nicotine improves brain function in schizophrenics

August 13, 2009 by Infowars Ireland

OXFORD, U.K.: Nicotine enhances attention and memory in schizophrenics, says a study that supports the development of new treatments which could relieve symptoms and prevent smoking-related deaths.

A strong link between schizophrenia and smoking – with over three times as many schizophrenics smoking (70 to 90%) as the population at large – prompted scientists to investigate the link.

Researchers led by Ruth Barr, a psychiatrist at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland, set out to find if the nicotine in cigarettes was helping patients to overcome their difficulties with cognitive function, such as planning and memory in social and work settings.

Debilitating symptoms

This is one of the most debilitating and untreated symptoms of schizophrenia. “We know that patients that do better in the long term are those with good cognitive function rather than improvement in any other symptom,” Barr told Cosmos Online.

Prior to this study, any benefits seen with nicotine in people with schizophrenia were thought to be related to overcoming the effects of smoking withdrawal, said Barr, rather than the beneficial effects of nicotine on disease symptoms themselves.

Previously, “we would ask participants to go without a cigarette for 12 hours and then provide a single dose of nicotine and measure cognitive function,” she said.

Reported last week at a British Association of Psychopharmacology meeting, in Oxford, England, this is the first study that has investigated the effects of nicotine in non-smoking patients with schizophrenia. Read full article…