This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on Web of Science (3)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

We have read with interest the report in the ARCHIVES by Prochazka et al¹ documenting that the antidepressant nortriptyline may represent a new therapeutic approach to smoking cessation. We would like to provide some additional considerations.

Nicotine is a highly addictive substance^2-3 that exerts a number of neurovegetative, behavioral, and psychological effects by interacting with neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors.⁴ Functional magnetic resonance imaging has shown that nicotine induces an increased neuronal activity in a distributed system of brain regions, including the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, cingulate, and frontal lobes, that participate in reinforcing mood-elevating and cognitive properties of other abuse substances.⁵ It is hypothesized that increases in nicotinic receptor levels underlie addiction in smokers, and thus, these receptors are suitable potential targets for drug therapy. Indeed, long-term administration of nicotine evokes, in animal models but also in humans, a dose-dependent increase in brain nicotinic receptor number and binding^6-7 that is reversed . . . [Full Text of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

The influence of tobacco smoke and nicotine on antidepressant and memory-improving effects of venlafaxine
Nowakowska et al.
Hum Exp Toxicol 2006;25:199-209.
ABSTRACT  

Pharmacologic Therapy for Nicotine Addiction
DeGraff
Chest 2002;122:392-394.
FULL TEXT