02-11-2004, 04:44 PM
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Cheesesteak GURU! Wiz with
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Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Fæyre Moünte
Posts: 2,537
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You may not be able to get it up or have kids, but at least you'll never forget why.
Quote:
Nicotine Patch May Improve Attention in Age-Associated Memory Impairment
Laurie Barclay, MD
Dec. 9, 2003 — Transdermal nicotine may improve cognitive performance in patients with age-associated memory impairment (AAMI), according to the results of a preliminary, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in Psychopharmacology and published online Oct. 8.
"In folks with relatively minor changes in their memory and thinking, there was some improvement with nicotine skin patches in the areas of attention and their general perception of their own memory," lead author Heidi White, MD, from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, says in a news release. "We hope that will translate into treatments that allow people to actually function better in their daily lives."
Previous studies suggest that chronic transdermal nicotine may improve attentional performance in Alzheimer's disease. In this crossover-design study, 11 subjects older than 60 years diagnosed with AAMI each wore a nicotine patch for four weeks and a placebo patch for four weeks separated by a two-week washout period. The nicotine patch was worn for 16 hours daily and delivered 5 mg/day during week 1, 10 mg/day during week 2 and week 3, and 5 mg/day during week 4. Mild adverse effects reported during nicotine patching were skin irritation and nausea.
On eight occasions during the 10-week study, subjects rated their own perception of memory improvement or decline on the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale, and clinicians evaluated their medical condition and performance on the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics battery and the Conners' Continuous Performance Test (CPT).
Compared with the placebo patch, more subjects using the nicotine patch reported a minimal improvement on the CGI. The average CGI score was unchanged during use of the placebo patch. Decision times decreased from approximately 200 milliseconds to less than 100 milliseconds during nicotine treatment, and the consistency of performance on tests of reaction time also improved significantly, suggesting that nicotine heightened attention in individuals with AAMI.
Nicotine did not significantly affect delayed matching to sample and Sternberg memory tests, errors on the CPT, Stroop task performance, and mental rotation processing speed, nor was any dose-effect relationship noted.
The authors warned that these findings should not in any way justify smoking, and that nicotine patches had not been approved for long-term use because of associated health risks, including nausea, dizziness, and increases in blood pressure and heart rate.
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