Self medicating for Schizophrenia with - cigarettes ?

post by morganism · 2017-01-24T00:08:02.738Z · LW · GW · Legacy · 8 comments

This is a link post for http://neurosciencenews.com/schizophrenia-nicotine-brain-activity-5995/

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comment by morganism · 2017-01-24T00:09:51.542Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

"the study found that when mice with schizophrenic characteristics were given nicotine daily, their sluggish brain activity increased within two days. Within one week it had normalized.

“Basically the nicotine is compensating for a genetically determined impairment,” says Stitzel. “No one has ever shown that before.”

The international team of scientists set out to explore the underlying causes of “hypofrontality” — a reduction of neuronal firing in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Hypofrontality is believed to be the root cause of many of the signature cognitive problems experienced by schizophrenics, including trouble paying attention, remembering things, making decisions and understanding verbal explanations."

Some eye-popping clickbait in the story on a study from Pastuer Inst.

http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.4274.html

comment by NancyLebovitz · 2017-01-24T07:37:05.074Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Might nicotine be doing a little mental good for people who aren't schizophrenics?

Replies from: sarahconstantin
↑ comment by sarahconstantin · 2017-01-25T09:24:10.167Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

it's one of the few effective cognitive enhancers, so yes, except for the fact that people with a tobacco addiction are less intelligent than baseline when they haven't smoked in a while, so it may be a wash except for quite occasional users.

comment by sarahconstantin · 2017-01-24T01:55:18.734Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Yep, it works. Don't take cigarettes away from schizophrenics!

Replies from: niceguyanon
↑ comment by niceguyanon · 2017-01-24T13:35:33.634Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

But tobacco is still bad! E-Cigs are better.

Replies from: korin43, morganism
↑ comment by Brendan Long (korin43) · 2017-01-24T15:26:19.466Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

Or nicotine pills. E-cigs are almost certainly better than normal cigarettes, but why does everyone seem to think inhalation is the only way to take nicotine?

(It's scary that apparently even doctors don't understand that nicotine is not the problem in cigarettes. I blame the drug war, where "being addictive" automatically makes things The Worst Thing Ever.)

↑ comment by morganism · 2017-01-24T22:52:21.462Z · LW(p) · GW(p)

E-cigs glycerine burning changes the structure of the lung aveoli on first use, you are getting a lot less CO, but unknown at this point if it is harmless, or less lethal. quit smoking Patches prob the best way so far.

Nicotine is a very potent poison too, is all in the doseage, right....?