Posted by scott-d-o on March 21, 2004, at 15:03:57
In reply to Re: Adderall made me quit smoking ,Why? please exp » scott-d-o, posted by rod on March 20, 2004, at 7:07:09
> > Since the addictive nature of nicotine relies on dopamine binding to these receptors, and nicotine does not have the ability to "knock" the ligand off of these occupied receptors, the pleasure/reward from smoking a cigarette is almost entirely abolished; dependant on the dosage of the stimulant of course.
>
> Isnt it that Nicotine exert its dopaminergic effect, by faciliating the release of Dopamine indirectly by stimulating nicotinic acetylcholine receptors? A directly dopaminergic drug would just replace the indirect effect of nicotine in my opinion.
>
> RolandThat is correct, I never stated the DA release was direct/indirect, rather that ultimately the reinforcing properties of nicotine depend on dopamine receptor binding. In fact, it is indirect, but say 95% of postsynaptic DA receptors are already occupied, this increase in extracellular DA will not contribute much to the reinforcing effect of smoking a cigarette. So, in essence you are only trading one addiction for another, but this does eliminate the actual habitual act of smoking a cigarette, and hence can help with smoking cessation, in the same way nicotine patches/gum/etc do. I hope this is more clear.
poster:scott-d-o
thread:324612
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040319/msgs/326734.html