Schizophrenia is famous for its symptoms of hallucinations and delusions, but sufferers also face debilitating cognitive impairment—and standard treatments with antipsychotic medications do little to compensate for intellectual loss. Seeking improved mental clarity, many patients turn to a seemingly mundane source: cigarettes. The extraordinarily high incidence of smoking in individuals with schizophrenia—about 85 percent of patients smoke compared with some 20 percent of the general population—has spurred researchers to investigate the therapeutic effects of nicotine in the diseased brain.
Every schizophrenia patient suffers some degree of deficit in memory, attention and thought organization, but no medication currently exists to treat these cognitive impairments. According to patients who smoke, cigarettes alleviate some of these symptoms, but research has found that the effect is short-lived and detrimental to overall health. The receptors to which nicotine binds in the brain quickly become desensitized, rendering smoking ultimately ineffective. And while the positive effects are disappearing, addiction is under way.
As an alternative, researchers are investigating newly derived chemical compounds that bind weakly to the brain’s nicotine receptors. Many of these binding agents are being tested in people who have schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although the mechanisms underlying nicotine’s cognitive effects remain unclear, scientists think it might improve focus by enhancing the brain’s ability to filter out unwanted external stimuli. Schizophrenia alters the chemical communication signals used by neurons, making it difficult for the brain to isolate a single process and devote conscious attention to it. Nicotine modifies these signaling processes and may help dampen extraneous neuronal activity.
Schizophrenia expert Carol Tamminga, professor of psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, says, “Doctors like me hope that in five or 10 years we’ll have medications for different symptom domains. It’s unclear if we’re going to get medications that target specific aspects of cognition, like an attention or memory enhancer specifically, or if we’re going to get drugs that cross the board in a more global way.” But for patients, any treatment would be a welcome relief.
This article was originally published with the title Smoking Away Schizophrenia?.
See what we're tweeting about
17 Comments
Add CommentSmoking & Schizophrenia
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have been diagnosed twenty nine years back, i have been a fluent smoker, it seems to help.. in part.. without them.. cigarettes, paranioa would strike even deeper.
I can see similarities between nicotine withdrawal symptoms and cognitive impairment experienced by people with schizophrenia, if not of the same degree. Perhaps a non addictive derivative of nicotine is just what individuals suffering from schizophrenia need. Unfortunately, until such drugs are available most of them will smoke.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps those alternative compounds could be al;so helpfull for quiting smoking.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisre: memory, attention and thought organization, but no medication currently exists to treat these cognitive impairments -- actually yes there are medications available like aricept & modafinal to name a few
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUntil I developed an interest in nutrition in mental health in the late 1990s my attitiude to the prognosis of schizophrenia was very negative as the treatment I saw with antipsychotics was quite poor. Now that I know the subject well I have much more hope for my patients and dealing with them gives me considerable professional satisfaction. Among doctors generally knowledge of this complementary treatment is almost unknown and I had to go to Sydney to attend a course for doctors presented by the staff of the Pfeiffer Center from Chicago (www.hriptc.org).You can read more about my views at www.omega3.20megsfree.com .There are now natural treatments that help most forms of mental illness from autism to Alzheimers,except for OCD where the recovery rate is still very low and Downs where the low IQ cannot be improved to date.There is no cure in sight but a return to a good quality life for at least half of those young people with schizophrenia is no longer out of the question.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have had the same disorder several years. However, I usually able to cope with and I comprehend the problem.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere is my advise to people who suffer from mental illness: I succeed to compensate the symptoms by exercising a lot and reading related article to expand my scientific insight about psychiatric disorders.
(BIGBANG)
BIGBANG has the right idea. Most of our psych meds don't do all that they are "advertised" they do. I heard a while back that Schizophrenics tend to smoke more cigarettes because they help the psychotropic meds work better. i dunno. I smoke like a fiend. I take antipsychotics. I still have major hallucinations and (I''m told) paranoia. Go figure.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't know what I would do if someone took away my cigs and told me I couldn't smoke anymore. But I don't see how they've helped my symptoms except that I am not stressed about not having cigs to smoke. lol.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have severe BPD and recently found that nicotine to an extent improved cognitive function (memory, organization, reduction of paranoia). I have, however, since quit since the positive effects appeared to diminish over time, I assume due to neuro receptor desensitization.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI find it hard to believe that specialists in this field do not realize that smokers are medicating themselves, but that nicotine is not necessarily the agent in question: by smoking through the mouth, the patient is promoting communication across the corpus callosum at a brain stratum deep enough to slightly overcome the tendency of the schizophrenic brain's hemispheres to operate independently. What the schizophrenic needs is not, therefore, necessarily nicotine, whose stimulatory effect is generalized throughout the brain and therefore not targeted to the schizophrenic's problem, which is excess generalized dopamine, but cognitive stimulation in the deepest reaches of his limbic system, adjacent to his under-stimulated hypothalamus and near the corpus callosum.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo clarify and broach another unmentionable subject: the effect of smoking through the mouth is analogous to that on individuals performing fellatio, some of whom do so for the same reasons schizophrenics smoke.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI began studying the mind because of knowing a schitzaphrenic & frankly
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisam convinced that it like most other mental illnesses has it basis in unbalanced emotional attitudes & responses. First about the sense of who they are & what you can expect from yourself. This can become warped by our loved ones in our lives, quite innocently before you are old enough to speak even. I say innocently deliberately because parents are victims that were never helped also.
In the genes...absolute rubbish because clearly genes are but another what comes first the chicken or the egg situation.
By labelling someone mentally ill this deprives of the confidence to help themselves. When the first school of psychology was set up it wasnt to help people help themselves, it was to learn methods to control masses. The reason all societies have a basis for creating insecurity & fear is to undermine in order that leaders can keep control.
The process for getting truth out to people in this study, has been that a few people have made the effort to understand & slowly they have FORCED leaders in fields to concede that they are right. So it has been an ongoing fight for the masses to keep their heads above water.
When you can accept that many of the ideals opinions attitudes you live your life by have not served you well & would be better gotten rid of or that you would be wise to an effort to learn new ones then you have made great inroads to curing these emotional imbalances. (Mental Illness)
I brought up 5 children & wish (not really) I had it all video'd so I could go over it with them & show them when I spoke garbage to.. save face, because I was upset at something else. because thats what I had been taught...the list goes on.
Much of the harm parents cause their children is not deliberately designed to undermine them.
Remember NO-ONE can take your opinions & attitudes from you...so take a look at as many as you can. You can ONLY GIVE away those you feel free to toss out & you would only ever do this because you found something better.
The bottomline law is IF it hurts YOU or ANOTHER get rid of it.
NO-ONE can give you confidence or a good reputation...you have to give to get. Try making a project of yourself & choose some traits you admire in others & work toward becoming these. In this way you earn 1st from YOU your self respect & inner strength & then you take on the world through different eyes.
THE QUESTION IS ARE YOU WILLING TO MAKE THE EFFORT.
Either way you reap of the thought seeds YOU sow. (Nothing to do with religion.
I began studying the mind because of knowing a schitzaphrenic & frankly
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisam convinced that it like most other mental illnesses has it basis in unbalanced emotional attitudes & responses. First about the sense of who they are & what you can expect from yourself. This can become warped by our loved ones in our lives, quite innocently before you are old enough to speak even. I say innocently deliberately because parents are victims that were never helped also.
In the genes...absolute rubbish because clearly genes are but another what comes first the chicken or the egg situation.
By labelling someone mentally ill this deprives of the confidence to help themselves. When the first school of psychology was set up it wasnt to help people help themselves, it was to learn methods to control masses. The reason all societies have a basis for creating insecurity & fear is to undermine in order that leaders can keep control.
The process for getting truth out to people in this study, has been that a few people have made the effort to understand & slowly they have FORCED leaders in fields to concede that they are right. So it has been an ongoing fight for the masses to keep their heads above water.
When you can accept that many of the ideals opinions attitudes you live your life by have not served you well & would be better gotten rid of or that you would be wise to an effort to learn new ones then you have made great inroads to curing these emotional imbalances. (Mental Illness)
I brought up 5 children & wish (not really) I had it all video'd so I could go over it with them & show them when I spoke garbage to.. save face, because I was upset at something else. because thats what I had been taught...the list goes on.
Much of the harm parents cause their children is not deliberately designed to undermine them.
Remember NO-ONE can take your opinions & attitudes from you...so take a look at as many as you can. You can ONLY GIVE away those you feel free to toss out & you would only ever do this because you found something better.
The bottomline law is IF it hurts YOU or ANOTHER get rid of it.
NO-ONE can give you confidence or a good reputation...you have to give to get. Try making a project of yourself & choose some traits you admire in others & work toward becoming these. In this way you earn 1st from YOU your self respect & inner strength & then you take on the world through different eyes.
THE QUESTION IS ARE YOU WILLING TO MAKE THE EFFORT.
Either way you reap of the thought seeds YOU sow. (Nothing to do with religion.
I began studying the mind because of knowing a schitzaphrenic & frankly
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisam convinced that it like most other mental illnesses has it basis in unbalanced emotional attitudes & responses. First about the sense of who they are & what you can expect from yourself. This can become warped by our loved ones in our lives, quite innocently before you are old enough to speak even. I say innocently deliberately because parents are victims that were never helped also.
In the genes...absolute rubbish because clearly genes are but another what comes first the chicken or the egg situation.
By labelling someone mentally ill this deprives of the confidence to help themselves. When the first school of psychology was set up it wasnt to help people help themselves, it was to learn methods to control masses. The reason all societies have a basis for creating insecurity & fear is to undermine in order that leaders can keep control.
The process for getting truth out to people in this study, has been that a few people have made the effort to understand & slowly they have FORCED leaders in fields to concede that they are right. So it has been an ongoing fight for the masses to keep their heads above water.
When you can accept that many of the ideals opinions attitudes you live your life by have not served you well & would be better gotten rid of or that you would be wise to an effort to learn new ones then you have made great inroads to curing these emotional imbalances. (Mental Illness)
I brought up 5 children & wish (not really) I had it all video'd so I could go over it with them & show them when I spoke garbage to.. save face, because I was upset at something else. because thats what I had been taught...the list goes on.
Much of the harm parents cause their children is not deliberately designed to undermine them.
Remember NO-ONE can take your opinions & attitudes from you...so take a look at as many as you can. You can ONLY GIVE away those you feel free to toss out & you would only ever do this because you found something better.
The bottomline law is IF it hurts YOU or ANOTHER get rid of it.
NO-ONE can give you confidence or a good reputation...you have to give to get. Try making a project of yourself & choose some traits you admire in others & work toward becoming these. In this way you earn 1st from YOU your self respect & inner strength & then you take on the world through different eyes.
THE QUESTION IS ARE YOU WILLING TO MAKE THE EFFORT.
Either way you reap of the thought seeds YOU sow. (Nothing to do with religion.
I so opologise for the repeated postings. I've been feeling to siily to come back sooner. Sorry
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJudy
judynz,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's easy to submit more than once, the program is slow.
It's not about making the effort. There's a point when it's time to stop wasting your time with a person who will not make any effort to help themselves.
Sometimes you have to save yourself or go nuts.
judynz,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisEverything we are is genes. If you are able to read and understand what you read, you will understand the problem and not be so angry. Sadly...we are not all created equal. Have the genes checked first, adopt if they are bad. Very Sorry...sometimes the truth is painful. Hope things work out better for you.