Nicotine and Schizophrenia: The Research

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1. Research at a Glance
2. The Papers
3. PubMed Topic Searches
4. More Nicotine Research
5. Connections
6. Featured Videos

Research at a Glance

What kind of study each paper on this page is, and when the papers were published. Hover over a bar for its count.

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The Papers (30)

Newest first. Study types on this page — Human trial: 4 · Review: 19 · Animal study: 6 · Chemistry / laboratory method: 1. Each summary is written from the paper’s own abstract; follow the PubMed link for the full record.

Nicotine Administration Normalizes Behavioral and Neurophysiological Perturbations in the MAM Rodent Model of Schizophrenia

Animal study, 2021. This study used rats with a brain-development disruption that models schizophrenia to test the idea that people with schizophrenia smoke to self-medicate their symptoms with nicotine. Researchers gave the rats nicotine once or over a longer period. They then measured two behaviours known to be impaired in this model, the startle reflex filter and recognition of a new object, and recorded nerve-cell activity in two brain areas. Both single and repeated doses of nicotine improved the behavioural deficits and brought the overactive nerve-cell activity back to normal in these rats, but the results come from animals only and have not been shown in people.

Weeks JJ, Grace AA, Sved AF (2021). Nicotine Administration Normalizes Behavioral and Neurophysiological Perturbations in the MAM Rodent Model of Schizophrenia. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. — PubMed PMID: 34622270 · doi:10.1093/ijnp/pyab064

Does nicotine exposure during adolescence modify the course of schizophrenia-like symptoms? Behavioral analysis in a phencyclidine-induced mice model

Animal study, 2021. Researchers gave adolescent mice a drug (phencyclidine) to produce schizophrenia-like behaviors, and some mice also received nicotine through a pump during adolescence. The phencyclidine caused problems with movement, memory, social behavior, and sensory filtering. Nicotine exposure reduced the excess movement and the lack of sociability caused by phencyclidine, but had no effect on the memory or sensory-filtering problems, and overall nicotine did not make the schizophrenia-like symptoms worse.

Dutra-Tavares AC, Manhães AC, Semeão KA et al. (2021). Does nicotine exposure during adolescence modify the course of schizophrenia-like symptoms? Behavioral analysis in a phencyclidine-induced mice model. PLoS One. — PubMed PMID: 34587208 · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0257986

Nicotine Self-administration Is Not Increased in the Methylazoxymethanol Acetate Rodent Model of Schizophrenia

Animal study, 2020. People with schizophrenia smoke 4-5 times more often than the general population, and one idea is that they find nicotine more rewarding. This study tested that idea in rats treated to model schizophrenia, letting them give themselves nicotine at a range of doses, in both 1-hour and 23-hour sessions. The model rats and normal rats took the same amount of nicotine, though the model rats worked less for sugar or for rewarding visual signals. The authors conclude that, to the extent this rat model reflects the human disease, finding nicotine more rewarding does not explain the higher smoking rate in schizophrenia. These results come from rats only.

Weeks JJ, Rupprecht LE, Grace AA et al. (2020). Nicotine Self-administration Is Not Increased in the Methylazoxymethanol Acetate Rodent Model of Schizophrenia. Nicotine Tob Res. — PubMed PMID: 30899959 · doi:10.1093/ntr/ntz048

Nicotine effects on cognitive remediation training outcome in people with schizophrenia: A pilot study

Human trial, 2019. This small randomized trial enrolled 25 people with schizophrenia in a 10-week computer-based brain-training program to see whether nicotine taken before sessions would boost the benefits. Twice a week, one group took a nicotine lozenge before training and the other took a placebo lozenge. Overall thinking scores improved over time in both groups with no difference between them, but on reasoning and problem-solving the placebo group improved while the nicotine group did not, which the authors read as nicotine getting in the way of training gains. Neither group's psychiatric symptoms changed, both groups improved on quality-of-life and everyday-functioning measures, and the study found no evidence that nicotine made the training work better.

Hahn B, Shrieves ME, Yuille MB et al. (2019). Nicotine effects on cognitive remediation training outcome in people with schizophrenia: A pilot study. Psychiatry Res. — PubMed PMID: 31437659 · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2019.112498

Modeling nicotine regulation: A review of studies in smokers with mental health conditions

Review, 2018. This review looks at studies of smokers with mental health conditions who were switched to cigarettes with very low nicotine content. People with these conditions lose about 15 years of life compared with non-smokers without them, and two-thirds of that loss is put down to smoking. In randomized, double-blind studies, these smokers cut down how many cigarettes they smoked, with little or no effect on withdrawal, psychiatric symptoms or compensatory smoking. Some studies found that lowering nicotine worsened performance on thinking tests in smokers with schizophrenia, and giving nicotine replacement at the same time offset this.

Tidey JW, Davis DR, Miller ME et al. (2018). Modeling nicotine regulation: A review of studies in smokers with mental health conditions. Prev Med. — PubMed PMID: 30343684 · doi:10.1016/j.ypmed.2018.07.003

Chronic nicotine treatment decreases LPS signaling through NF-κB and TLR-4 modulation in the hippocampus

Animal study, 2017. This study looked at whether giving nicotine daily for 14 days changes inflammation in the hippocampus, a memory area of the brain that has many nicotinic receptors, especially the alpha-7 type. The animals were then exposed to LPS, a piece of bacteria that triggers inflammation. In the animals given nicotine, LPS switched on less of NF-kB, an inflammation 'master switch', and less of the inflammation genes Tnf, Il1b, Nos2 and Tlr4. Drugs that block nicotinic receptors, including one that blocks only the alpha-7 type, cancelled this effect, which suggests nicotine acts through these receptors; the result comes from animals only, not from people.

Café-Mendes CC, Garay-Malpartida HM, Malta MB et al. (2017). Chronic nicotine treatment decreases LPS signaling through NF-κB and TLR-4 modulation in the hippocampus. Neurosci Lett. — PubMed PMID: 27984197 · doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2016.10.056

Nicotine ameliorates schizophrenia-like cognitive deficits induced by maternal LPS exposure: a study in rats

Animal study, 2016. This study in rats looked at whether nicotine could reverse thinking and attention problems linked to schizophrenia. Pregnant rats were given a bacterial toxin (LPS, 0.5 mg/kg) at one of three stages of pregnancy, and their male offspring were tested as young adults. Only offspring exposed early in pregnancy (gestation days 10-11) had problems on all three tests. Daily nicotine injections (0.6 mg/kg) reversed their problems with selective attention and improved sensory filtering across all groups, but these results come from rats only.

Waterhouse U, Roper VE, Brennan KA et al. (2016). Nicotine ameliorates schizophrenia-like cognitive deficits induced by maternal LPS exposure: a study in rats. Dis Model Mech. — PubMed PMID: 27483346 · doi:10.1242/dmm.025072

The Role of Nicotine in Schizophrenia

Review, 2015. This review article looks at what is known about nicotine and the nicotinic receptor system in schizophrenia, a serious illness that disrupts thinking, emotions and behavior. People with schizophrenia smoke and become dependent on nicotine at much higher rates than other people. This is often explained by the idea that nicotine may ease their symptoms and thinking problems, and the authors note that many studies found patients improved after receiving nicotine. The review also covers genetic findings that link changes in nicotinic receptor genes to both smoking and schizophrenia, and it summarizes attempts to treat schizophrenia with drugs aimed at nicotinic receptors, because current antipsychotic medicines leave several parts of the illness untreated.

Featherstone RE, Siegel SJ (2015). The Role of Nicotine in Schizophrenia. Int Rev Neurobiol. — PubMed PMID: 26472525 · doi:10.1016/bs.irn.2015.07.002

Heterogeneity across brain regions and neurotransmitter interactions with nicotinic effects on memory function

Review, 2015. This review looks at how the brain's nicotinic receptors, which nicotine acts on, help with memory, and how their role differs between brain areas. In rats, blocking two of the main nicotinic receptor types in memory areas such as the hippocampus, the amygdala and part of the thalamus impaired memory in a maze task, while drugs that activate these receptors improved learning, memory and attention. Blocking both receptor types together did not make the memory loss worse than blocking one alone. The authors also describe a large loss of these receptors in the hippocampus in Alzheimer's disease and abnormal receptor levels in schizophrenia. They note that long-term nicotine exposure, such as from tobacco use, increases the number of these receptors, and that it is still unclear whether activating or desensitizing the receptors is what improves thinking.

Levin ED, Hall BJ, Rezvani AH (2015). Heterogeneity across brain regions and neurotransmitter interactions with nicotinic effects on memory function. Curr Top Behav Neurosci. — PubMed PMID: 25655888 · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-13665-3_4

The nicotinic cholinergic system function in the human brain

Review, 2015. This review looks at human brain-imaging studies of the nicotinic cholinergic system, the brain's network of nicotinic receptors. It covers research using functional MRI and PET scans in healthy people and in patients. The studies show mixed results: depending on the task, activity linked to this system sometimes went up and sometimes went down, in areas such as thinking, emotion and behavior. The authors suggest that these brain-activity patterns could help mark mental and brain disorders in which this system changes, such as addiction, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson disease and schizophrenia, and could help in developing psychological and drug treatments.

Nees F (2015). The nicotinic cholinergic system function in the human brain. Neuropharmacology. — PubMed PMID: 25446570 · doi:10.1016/j.neuropharm.2014.10.021

Chronic nicotine attenuates phencyclidine-induced impulsivity in a mouse serial reaction time task

Animal study, 2014. This study in mice tested whether nicotine could reduce impulsive behaviour caused by phencyclidine, a drug used to mimic some symptoms of schizophrenia in animals. The mice performed an attention task that measures impulsivity, selective attention and sustained attention. Nicotine given by mouth over a long period reduced the phencyclidine-induced rise in impulsive responses without changing the other attention measures, but single injections of nicotine did not have this effect. The authors suggest this may help explain why people with schizophrenia smoke at high rates, though the result comes only from mice.

Scott D, Taylor JR (2014). Chronic nicotine attenuates phencyclidine-induced impulsivity in a mouse serial reaction time task. Behav Brain Res. — PubMed PMID: 24239695 · doi:10.1016/j.bbr.2013.11.009

Neurocognitive endophenotypes in schizophrenia: modulation by nicotinic receptor systems

Review, 2014. This review looks at why people with schizophrenia smoke much more often than the general population, and whether nicotine and the brain's nicotinic acetylcholine receptors help explain it. Thinking and memory problems affect about 80% of patients with schizophrenia, and the authors describe evidence that these patients' nicotinic receptor system does not work normally. Earlier research, including animal and laboratory studies, found that nicotine affects several brain chemical messengers, including dopamine, glutamate and GABA. In patients with schizophrenia, giving nicotine improved reaction time, spatial working memory, sustained attention and sensory gating (the brain's filtering of repeated sounds or signals). These improvements appeared stronger in patients who smoke, and the authors suggest this may help explain why schizophrenia and tobacco dependence so often occur together.

Mackowick KM, Barr MS, Wing VC et al. (2014). Neurocognitive endophenotypes in schizophrenia: modulation by nicotinic receptor systems. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. — PubMed PMID: 23871750 · doi:10.1016/j.pnpbp.2013.07.010

Nicotine enhances antisaccade performance in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls

Human trial, 2013. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover trial tested a nicotine patch in 22 people with schizophrenia (12 smokers, 10 non-smokers) and 26 healthy people (14 smokers, 12 non-smokers). Smokers got a 14 mg patch and non-smokers a 7 mg patch. Each person then did an antisaccade task, which means looking away from a spot that suddenly appears, a test of attention and self-control. People with schizophrenia made more errors than the healthy group, and nicotine reduced errors on the standard version of the task but not on the delayed version. The benefit was similar in smokers and non-smokers, so the authors conclude that nicotine itself improved performance rather than just relieving withdrawal in smokers.

Petrovsky N, Ettinger U, Quednow BB et al. (2013). Nicotine enhances antisaccade performance in schizophrenia patients and healthy controls. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. — PubMed PMID: 23399382 · doi:10.1017/S1461145713000011

Stress and the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor

Review, 2012. This review looks at how nicotine interacts with the body's stress system in people and laboratory animals. It says nicotine is well known to harm health, but it also notes research suggesting nicotine can help thinking and memory and may have a protective or easing role in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia. The authors focus on one nicotine receptor, the alpha-7 nicotinic receptor, which they describe as a key link between nicotine, the stress system and these diseases. They also report that this receptor has been shown to protect brain cells through several pathways, which makes it a reasonable target for developing treatments for a number of brain disorders.

Hunter RG (2012). Stress and the α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor. Curr Drug Targets. — PubMed PMID: 22300027 · doi:10.2174/138945012800398982

Why do patients with schizophrenia smoke?

Review, 2010. This review looks at why people with schizophrenia smoke far more than others, with about 70-80% of these patients smoking. An older explanation was that smoking speeds up how the liver clears some antipsychotic drugs and reduces their side effects. More recent work suggests smoking may also ease some symptoms of the illness, especially negative symptoms (such as low motivation) and problems with thinking, through nicotine's effects on the brain's nicotinic system, and these mechanisms are still being studied. The authors conclude that heavy smoking in schizophrenia is not simply a bad habit: self-medicating symptoms and drug side effects appear to play a major role, and that understanding why may help develop new drugs aimed at the nicotinic system and quit-smoking programs designed for these patients.

Winterer G (2010). Why do patients with schizophrenia smoke?. Curr Opin Psychiatry. — PubMed PMID: 20051860 · doi:10.1097/YCO.0b013e3283366643

Nicotine binding to brain receptors requires a strong cation-pi interaction

Chemistry / laboratory method, 2009. This laboratory study looked at why nicotine attaches strongly to acetylcholine receptors in the brain but only weakly to the same type of receptor in muscle. At the alpha4beta2 brain receptor, which is thought to underlie nicotine addiction, nicotine's strong grip comes from a particular chemical attraction (a cation-pi interaction) with one amino acid of the receptor, called TrpB, and that attraction is mostly missing in the muscle receptor even though the binding sites are built from the same amino acids. A single small difference near TrpB seems to change the shape of the binding site, which lets nicotine bind more tightly in the brain receptor. The authors say these findings could help efforts to design drugs that act on specific types of nicotinic receptors, which are drug targets in conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, pain, depression and smoking cessation.

Xiu X, Puskar NL, Shanata JA et al. (2009). Nicotine binding to brain receptors requires a strong cation-pi interaction. Nature. — PubMed PMID: 19252481 · doi:10.1038/nature07768

Nicotine and nicotinic system in hypoglutamatergic models of schizophrenia

Review, 2007. This review looks at animal research on nicotine and the brain's nicotinic receptors in models of schizophrenia. The models are built by giving animals drugs that block the brain's NMDA glutamate receptors. Because smoking is very common among people with schizophrenia, some researchers think these patients may be self-medicating with nicotine. Animal studies of how nicotine interacts with the brain's glutamate system have given conflicting results. The authors suggest that drugs acting on nicotinic receptors may have treatment potential in schizophrenia, and they say several animal models need to be combined because each has its own limits.

Tizabi Y (2007). Nicotine and nicotinic system in hypoglutamatergic models of schizophrenia. Neurotox Res. — PubMed PMID: 18201951 · doi:10.1007/BF03033907

Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia: focus on neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and smoking

Review, 2007. This review looks at the thinking problems people with schizophrenia often have, and at why so many of them smoke. It describes nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, the brain receptors that nicotine acts on. It covers how these receptors become less responsive after repeated stimulation and how the brain makes more of them, and how both changes may relate to schizophrenia. The authors look at whether smoking may help with these thinking problems. They also discuss drugs aimed at these receptors as possible future treatments for the thinking problems of schizophrenia.

Ochoa EL, Lasalde-Dominicci J (2007). Cognitive deficits in schizophrenia: focus on neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and smoking. Cell Mol Neurobiol. — PubMed PMID: 17554626 · doi:10.1007/s10571-007-9149-x

Nicotine for schizophrenia

Review, 2006. This systematic review looked for randomised clinical trials that tested nicotine or related products, alone or alongside other treatment, in people with schizophrenia or similar serious psychotic illnesses. The background is that people with schizophrenia smoke at very high rates, and nicotine is thought to have psychological effects that may ease psychotic symptoms. The reviewers found no trials that met their inclusion criteria, so they could not draw any conclusion about benefits or harms. They called for well-designed randomised controlled trials of nicotine's effects on schizophrenia symptoms and on the side effects of antipsychotic drugs.

Punnoose S, Belgamwar MR (2006). Nicotine for schizophrenia. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. — PubMed PMID: 16437497 · doi:10.1002/14651858.CD004838.pub2

Nicotinic receptors and schizophrenia

Review, 2004. This review looks at the nicotinic receptors in the brain, which nicotine acts on, and how they relate to schizophrenia. It reports that 80% to 90% of people with schizophrenia smoke, compared with 25% to 30% of the general population, and that studies show tobacco use briefly restores some of their thinking and sensory problems, while quitting appears to worsen symptoms. Studies of brain tissue after death found altered levels of two nicotinic receptor types, alpha7 and alpha4beta2, in several brain areas, and genetic studies have linked the alpha7 receptor to schizophrenia. The authors suggest ways this receptor system may take part in causing the disease.

Ripoll N, Bronnec M, Bourin M (2004). Nicotinic receptors and schizophrenia. Curr Med Res Opin. — PubMed PMID: 15265251 · doi:10.1185/030079904125004060

Nicotine and nicotinic receptor involvement in neuropsychiatric disorders

Review, 2004. This review looks at experimental and clinical research on nicotine and nicotinic receptors, the brain receptors that nicotine acts on, in several brain and mental health conditions. The authors say changes in the number or function of these receptors have been linked to Alzheimer's disease for several years. They describe growing evidence that the receptors may also play an important role in schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, anxiety disorders and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The review aims to identify targets for developing new medicines.

Newhouse P, Singh A, Potter A (2004). Nicotine and nicotinic receptor involvement in neuropsychiatric disorders. Curr Top Med Chem. — PubMed PMID: 14754447 · doi:10.2174/1568026043451401

Nicotinic receptor subtypes and cognitive function

Review, 2002. This review looks at how nicotinic receptors in the brain, the receptors nicotine acts on, are involved in thinking and memory. It notes that nicotine has been shown to improve attention in people with Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and ADHD, and that new drugs acting on specific receptor subtypes might work better with fewer side effects. In the authors' own experiments, which were done only in rats, both short-term and long-term nicotine improved working memory in a maze. Blocking either of two receptor types (alpha4beta2 or alpha7) in two brain areas, the hippocampus and the amygdala, impaired working memory, and long-term nicotine reversed the impairment caused by blocking alpha4beta2 in the hippocampus but not the impairment caused by blocking alpha7.

Levin ED (2002). Nicotinic receptor subtypes and cognitive function. J Neurobiol. — PubMed PMID: 12436426 · doi:10.1002/neu.10151

The effects of nicotine on specific eye tracking measures in schizophrenia

Human trial, 2002. Researchers gave a single 1 mg dose of nicotine by nasal spray to 29 people with schizophrenia (15 smokers and 14 nonsmokers) and 26 healthy people (15 smokers and 11 nonsmokers), then measured how smoothly their eyes followed a moving target. In both smokers and nonsmokers with schizophrenia, nicotine improved how quickly the eyes sped up when they began following the target, and it improved how well they kept up with a target moving at 18.7 degrees per second; it had no effect on the healthy volunteers. Nicotine did not change quick eye jumps, memory-guided eye movements or visual attention on a continuous performance task. The authors concluded that the findings point to an abnormality in how the brain's nicotinic receptor system works in schizophrenia.

Sherr JD, Myers C, Avila MT et al. (2002). The effects of nicotine on specific eye tracking measures in schizophrenia. Biol Psychiatry. — PubMed PMID: 12372663 · doi:10.1016/s0006-3223(02)01342-2

Neuronal nicotinic receptor and psychiatric disorders: functional and behavioral effects of nicotine

Review, 2002. This review looks at research on the brain's nicotinic receptors, which are the sites nicotine acts on, and how they relate to psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, depression and anxiety. It notes that clinical studies link smoking with these disorders, and that people with schizophrenia have been reported to have fewer of one receptor type (alpha7) in the hippocampus, a brain area involved in memory. Other research it covers suggested nicotine might help with thinking problems in Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and ADHD, and showed antidepressant-like effects in rats bred to show depression-like behaviour, an animal-only result. The authors conclude that nicotine and other drugs acting on these receptors deserve more study as possible treatments for psychiatric disorders.

Araki H, Suemaru K, Gomita Y (2002). Neuronal nicotinic receptor and psychiatric disorders: functional and behavioral effects of nicotine. Jpn J Pharmacol. — PubMed PMID: 11928712 · doi:10.1254/jjp.88.133

Cognitive effects of nicotine

Review, 2001. This review looks at research on how nicotine and other substances that act on nicotinic receptors affect thinking skills. The authors report that nicotine has been found to improve performance on attention and memory tasks. They also report that clinical studies using nicotine skin patches showed benefits for thinking problems linked to Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In animal studies, the improvement in working memory lasted with long-term exposure, and two types of nicotinic receptors in the hippocampus, a memory area of the brain, were found to be key to these effects.

Rezvani AH, Levin ED (2001). Cognitive effects of nicotine. Biol Psychiatry. — PubMed PMID: 11230877 · doi:10.1016/s0006-3223(00)01094-5

Nicotine and brain disorders

Review, 2000. This review looks at the nicotinic receptors in the brain, the docking sites that nicotine acts on. It explains that these receptors matter for memory and thinking, and that they play a part in several brain disorders: Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Tourette's syndrome, schizophrenia, depression and attention deficit disorder. The authors write that clinical studies of these same conditions found nicotine had beneficial effects, both as a treatment and as a way to help prevent them. It is a summary of earlier research, not a new study, and the abstract gives no patient numbers.

Mihailescu S, Drucker-Colín R (2000). Nicotine and brain disorders. Acta Pharmacol Sin. — PubMed PMID: 11263271

Nicotine transdermal patch and atypical antipsychotic medications for smoking cessation in schizophrenia

Human trial, 2000. This randomized trial studied 45 people with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who smoked. All of them wore a 21 mg/day nicotine skin patch for 10 weeks and attended 10 weekly group therapy sessions. They were assigned either to a standard quit-smoking group program (17 people) or to a program designed for smokers with schizophrenia (28 people), and they kept taking their usual atypical (18 people) or older typical (27 people) antipsychotic medicines. Quit rates were the same in the two group programs, but people on atypical antipsychotics quit more often with the patch than people on typical antipsychotics (55.6% versus 22.2%). The authors concluded that quit rates with the nicotine patch alone are modest in schizophrenia.

George TP, Ziedonis DM, Feingold A et al. (2000). Nicotine transdermal patch and atypical antipsychotic medications for smoking cessation in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. — PubMed PMID: 11058482 · doi:10.1176/appi.ajp.157.11.1835

Nicotine, brain nicotinic receptors, and neuropsychiatric disorders

Review, 2000. This review describes the nicotinic receptors in the brain, a large family of channels that nicotine acts on, and notes that their normal roles are still not well understood. It summarizes behavioral studies linking these receptors to attention, memory and thinking, and clinical evidence suggesting they are involved in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Tourette's syndrome, schizophrenia and depression. The authors suggest that drugs that switch on these receptors might help prevent some of these disorders, especially Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, or ease their symptoms. They also discuss how these effects might work and describe newer drugs designed to act on specific receptor types.

Mihailescu S, Drucker-Colín R (2000). Nicotine, brain nicotinic receptors, and neuropsychiatric disorders. Arch Med Res. — PubMed PMID: 10880717 · doi:10.1016/s0188-4409(99)00087-9

A review of the effects of nicotine on schizophrenia and antipsychotic medications

Review, 1999. This review looked at research published since 1990 on how nicotine affects people with schizophrenia and the medicines used to treat it. It reports that smoking improves how patients with schizophrenia filter sound (called sensory gating) and may ease negative symptoms by raising dopamine in parts of the brain, and that patients who smoke break down antipsychotic medicines faster than non-smokers. People on older antipsychotics may smoke more, while those on newer (atypical) antipsychotics may smoke less. Programs to help outpatients with schizophrenia quit smoking reported a success rate of about 12 percent after six months, and hospital smoking bans gave mixed results.

Lyon ER (1999). A review of the effects of nicotine on schizophrenia and antipsychotic medications. Psychiatr Serv. — PubMed PMID: 10506305 · doi:10.1176/ps.50.10.1346

Smoking, smoking withdrawal and schizophrenia: case reports and a review of the literature

Review, 1996. This paper reviews evidence linking cigarette smoking and schizophrenia and presents three case reports in which stopping smoking (nicotine withdrawal) was followed by a worsening of schizophrenia symptoms.

Dalack GW, Meador-Woodruff JH (1996). Smoking, smoking withdrawal and schizophrenia: case reports and a review of the literature. Schizophr Res. — PubMed PMID: 8958597 · doi:10.1016/s0920-9964(96)80441-5

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PubMed Topic Searches

1. PubMed: Schizophrenia and nicotine (the search this page is built from)

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Connections

• Dopamine, Reward & How Habits Hijack You — interactive animation
• Nicotine: The Research
• Dr. Bryan Ardis on this subject — his claims, presented on their own pages and kept separate from this research collection
• The Nicotine Patch, animated
• Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors
• Cigarette Smoke — what burnt tobacco adds that nicotine alone does not
• Brain and Memory
• Mood and Mental Health
• Inflammation and Immunity
• Cancer Research
• Heart and Blood Vessels
• Metabolism and Weight
• Addiction and Withdrawal
• Patches, Gum and Delivery

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