Abstract
Rationale
Nicotinic agonists may improve attention and memory in humans and may ameliorate some cognitive deficits associated with neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia.
Materials and methods
We investigated the effects of a single dose of nicotine on episodic memory performance in 10 adults with schizophrenia and 12 healthy controls. Participants were nonsmokers in order to avoid confounding effects of nicotine withdrawal and reinstatement on memory. At each of two study visits, participants performed a test of episodic memory before and 4 h after application of a 14-mg transdermal nicotine (or identical placebo) patch in counterbalanced order.
Results
Compared with placebo, nicotine treatment was associated with more rapid and accurate recognition of novel items. There was a trend for a treatment by diagnosis interaction, such that the effect of nicotine to reduce false alarms was stronger in the schizophrenia than the control group. There was no effect of nicotine on accuracy or reaction time for identification of previously viewed items.
Conclusions
These data suggest that nicotine improves novelty detection in non-smokers, an effect that may be more pronounced in non-smokers with schizophrenia. Because memory deficits are associated with functional impairment in schizophrenia and because impaired novelty detection has been linked to the positive symptoms of schizophrenia, study of the effects of chronic nicotinic agonist treatment on novelty detection may be warranted.
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Acknowledgements
This work was funded by a grant from the Stanley Medical Research Institute (Dr. Evins). Dr. Evins was also supported by a career development award from NIDA for the study of nicotine in schizophrenia, NIDA 1K23DA00510-01. Dr. Weiss was supported by a career development award from NIMH for the study of episodic memory in schizophrenia, NIMH K23 MH06019. Ms. Jubelt was supported by a Harvard-Pasteur Doris Duke Clinical Research Fellowship. The authors wish to acknowledge Rana Mufti, Michael A. Dyer, and Margaret Duff for their technical assistance in data collection and management in the completion of this research.
Disclosure/Conflicts of Interest
Dr. Evins reports a collaborative agreement with GSK in conjunction with a Cooperative Drug Discovery Group for Nicotine Dependence funded by NIDA U01 DA19378-01. GSK is the maker of Nicoderm Patch, the brand of patch used in this trial.
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Drs. Evins and Weiss contributed equally to the project.
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Jubelt, L.E., Barr, R.S., Goff, D.C. et al. Effects of transdermal nicotine on episodic memory in non-smokers with and without schizophrenia. Psychopharmacology 199, 89–98 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-008-1133-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00213-008-1133-8