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A Few "Harmless Puffs" Can Lead One Towards Nicotine
Addiction
Right
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Brief Description:
You might think just a few puffs of a cigarette would be harmless. But
according to a new imaging study supported by the National Institute
on Drug Abuse, those so-called "harmless" puffs can get you started
on the road towards being hooked.
Transcript:
AKINSO: You might think just a few puffs of a cigarette
would be harmless. But according to a new imaging study supported by
the National Institute on Drug Abuse, those so-called "harmless" puffs
can get you started on the road towards being hooked. You might think
just a few puffs of a cigarette would be harmless. But according to a
new imaging study supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
those so-called "harmless" puffs can get you started on the road towards
being hooked. Researchers found that the amount of nicotine contained
in just one puff of a cigarette can occupy about 30 percent of the brain's
most common type of nicotine receptors, while three puffs of a cigarette
can occupy about 70 percent of these receptors. When nearly all of the
receptors are occupied, the smoker becomes satisfied for a time. However
this level of satisfaction wears off, driving the smoker to continue
smoking throughout the day to satisfy cigarette cravings according to
lead scientist, Dr. Arthur Brody of the David Geffen School of Medicine
at UCLA. BRODY: There's really two main take home points. The first is
that cigarette smokers are basically walking around with their brains
saturated with nicotine all-day long. The minute the saturation levels
starts to go down, they start craving cigarettes again. The other interesting
take home point is that it takes very little smoking to start to occupy
these receptors. So it points to the fact that, there may be other aspects
of smoking and other brain systems that are important for keeping people
smoking. So for example the taste of cigarettes, the feel of cigarettes
in someone's hand, the smell of cigarettes; all those things may act
on systems outside of the nicotine system to also be important in maintaining
addiction to tobacco. So our study also pointed to the fact that there
might be other factors besides just nicotine as being important for maintaining
cigarette smoking. AKINSO: The scientists used PET scans to view the
brains of smokers and assess nicotine distribution. Dr. Brody said a
more complete understanding of how nicotine affects the brain can help
scientists develop better therapies for people looking to kick the habit.
This is Wally Akinso at the National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Maryland.
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| Date: 08/25/2006 |
Reporter:
Wally Akinso |
Sound
Bite:
Dr. Arthur Brody |
Topic:
Smoking |
| Institute(s): NIDA |
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