Nicotine and Cognitive Efficiency in Alcoholics and Illicit Stimulant Abusers: Implications of Smoking Cessation for Substance Users in Treatment

Abstract

Cigarette smoking is prevalent among alcoholics and illicit substance abusers. However, the potentially confounding effect of nicotine on studies of cognition in detoxified substance users has rarely been addressed. In the current study of 87 participants, behavioral and electrophysiological indices of cognitive efficiency were measured in tobacco smokers from four groups: alcoholics, illicit stimulant abusers, concurrent abusers, and control subjects. Data were collected from 2001 to 2003. We hypothesized that acute nicotine administration would modify cognitive deficits in alcoholics and illicit stimulant abusing groups. An adaptation of the Rapid Visual Information Processing task was administered after stabilization of nicotine levels via a high- or low-dose transdermal nicotine patch. Across groups, increased nicotine dose was associated with decreased reaction time (p = .03). A group x nicotine dose interaction trend was noted in which increased nicotine was associated with increased correct responding within the alcoholic group (p = .02). No significant differences in electrophysiology were observed. These results suggest that nicotine may modify cognitive efficiency in alcoholics and illicit stimulant abusers, a concept with relevance to both the design of experimental work and the treatment of alcohol and illicit stimulant dependence. Further work is needed to determine whether this effect predominantly reflects facilitation of cognition function or alleviation of nicotine withdrawal.

Transdermal Nicotine Administration and the Electroencephalographic Activity of Substance Abusers in Treatment

“…Given the opposing effects of acute nicotine administration, which is often presumed to be cognitively enhancing [5,6,7], and the chronic effects of other drugs of abuse, which are typically negative [8,9,10,11,12], the co-morbidity of nicotine and other substance dependence may be of direct relevance to the investigation of the long-term neurocognitive effects of chronic substance abuse. Consistent with this hypothesis are recent data from our own work, in which acute nicotine administration altered the typical performance patterns of alcohol [13] and stimulant dependent [14,15] participants on tasks assessing attentional functioning. Specifically, alcoholand stimulant-dependent individuals often exhibit deficits of attentional functioning [16]; which were not observed in our study when nicotine levels were stabilized throughout the testing session.…”

“…Carbon monoxide (CO) readings were obtained on the morning of testing and compared to screening values. Compliance was evidenced by a maximum CO reading of 12ppm or less or 50% of baseline CO [13,14,15]. Participants were presented with a standard breakfast, and a single caffeinated beverage was made available for individuals who regularly consumed caffeine in the morning.…”

“…Our previous studies using primarily behavioral methods [14,15] suggested that detoxified alcoholics performed more efficiently (vs. recovering stimulant abusers) under the influence of nicotine administration. No dose effects of nicotine administration were noted.…”

Chronic cigarette smoking modulates injury and short-term recovery of the medial temporal lobe in alcoholics

“…In healthy non-smokers and in individuals with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and schizophrenia-spectrum disorders acute nicotine administration transiently improves some areas of neurocognition, most appreciably sustained attention (see Rezvani and Levin, 2001;Sacco et al, 2004). Whether these acute effects on neurocognition are manifested also in non-smoking alcoholics and other substance abusers is unclear (see Ceballos et al, 2005;Ceballos et al, 2006). The adverse effects of nicotine withdrawal on neurocognition are not typically apparent until 8-12 hours after last nicotine dose, at least in non-alcoholic chronic smokers (see Sacco et al, 2004;Mendrek et al, 2006;Xu et al, 2005).…”

Concurrent Alcohol Use or Heavier Use of Alcohol and Cigarette Smoking Among Women of Childbearing Age with Accessible Health Care

“…Such women are often more addicted (Burling and Burling 2003;CASA 2005), less able to resist cross-substance craving (Drobes et al 2000;McKee et al 2006;Rohsenow et al 2005), and less motivated to quit (Ceballos et al 2006). Although behaviors such as excessive drinking and cigarette smoking are amenable to interventions independently (Orleans 2004;Poudevigne and O'Connor 2006), accumulating evidence suggests that combining intervention strategies might be the most effective way to address concurrent alcohol use and cigarette smoking, regardless of whether such interventions are administered sequentially or simultaneously (Gulliver et al 2006;Kodl et al 2006;NIAAA 2007;Prochaska et al 2006;Ziedonis et al 2006).…”