Comments on: Nicotine Addiction and Autism

By: Jay Rau

Jay Rau — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:18:40 +0000

Cigarettes were the gateway drug for me. I started hanging with the wrong crowd smoking and one addiction lead to another. I ended up spending 22 years addicted to various drugs. Please read my article the gateway drug at:
http://www.soberliving.com/blog/the-real-gateway-drug-marijuana-vs.-cigarettes

Thank you

By: Deepak

Deepak — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 03:19:13 +0000

Smoking addiction is an uncontrollable dependence on the highly addictive nicotine stimulant present in tobacco products. Nicotine alters the levels of certain chemicals in the brain that causes smokers to experience pleasurable changes to mood and concentration. When a smoker stops smoking they crave the nicotine effects and can suffer withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, depression and irritable.

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:17:53 +0000

For example, if I’m remembering correctly (you know how I hate to track down links), something in chocolate binds the “cannabinoid” receptors but not producing quite the intensity of reaction that THC does.

By: Emily

Emily — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:17:05 +0000

pD…what you say about the receptors is true…they’re just named after what we first used to find them, generally.

By: Regan

Regan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:08:12 +0000

pD,
Interesting indeed.

Thanks!

By: passionlessDrone

passionlessDrone — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 19:01:10 +0000

Hi Regan –

Also see:

“Memantine as adjunctive therapy in children diagnosed with autistic spectrum disorders: an observation of initial clinical response and maintenance tolerability”

and

“A retrospective study of memantine in children and adolescents with pervasive developmental disorders”

If I am not mistaken, Storkdoc is using memantine under the supervision of the author of the first paper, with generally pleasing results. Can’t remember exactly if memantine was what they were using though.

- pD

By: passionlessDrone

passionlessDrone — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:55:33 +0000

Hi Regan -

I would say that, yes, this doesn’t have much to do with nicotine addiction or smoking. I think what we have is a situation wherein the brain has receptor sites for bunches of neurotransmitters, and they’ve been named according to what things we had good names for what fit into them well. To this point, there are also cannabanoid receptors. I’m guessing here, so someone please correct me if you can.

For the pilot studies, check out:

“A prospective, open-label trial of galantamine in autistic disorder”

Also a few case studies:

“Galantamine in the treatment of adult autism: a report of three clinical cases”

There are a couple of other acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, or very similar agents, available that have been used in similarly small studies, but their names are escaping me right now. My wife is more up on this subject than myself. I’ll ask her to send some stuff my way.

This area excites me tremendously, though it may strike others as the opposite. To my mind, it is the beginning of being able to eliminate the notion that a ‘differently wired’ brain mandates that no treatments are available.

This is a big, big area. I’ve seen a couple of papers that have used animal models to show that maternal immune response can create offspring with similar receptor abnormalities as what is seen in autism.

HTH.

- pD

By: Regan

Regan — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:39:59 +0000

pD,
Am I correct that even though this was stumbled on as a sidebar to nicotine addiction research, that getting stuck on nicotine or smoking, per se, might be something of a red herring?

Do you have any citations or sources for those pilot studies?

By: Eleanor

Eleanor — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:46:07 +0000

Okay, so now we can feel guilty because we DIDN’T smoke during pregnancy…

By: passionlessDrone

passionlessDrone — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:40:49 +0000

Hello friends -

There are actually a few pilot studies of using drugs that manipulate nicotinic receptors, or closely related receptors with varying results. In any case, the area of cholinergic manipulation is likely to be a intensely studied area in autism and other neurological disorders.

- pD