Thought I'd throw out something that was neuro-related after such a long and tedious travel hiatus!
According to Nature News, a new study helps explain the mentality of "I only smoke when I drink" and why smokers tender to drink more than non-smokers. As a short stint as a waitress, I totally noticed that the smoking section was always where the best money was, because smokers drank, which increased the bill and tip. And according to this study in rats, a heavy dose of nicotine can reduce blood alcohol levels by HALF. This leads to the logical conclusion that smokers must drink more than non-smokers to get the same level of intoxication.
Several other reasons have been proposed as to why smokers are more likely to drink, and drink more, than non-smokers: a tendency to indulge, tolerance to dopamine (which both alcohol and nicotine trigger the release of) requires more drug to be administered, etc. However, now it is believed that nicotine directly alters the "potency of alcohol in the body." The experiment is described below:
To mimic more closely the effect in human drinkers, Chen and his colleagues studied the effects of binge drinking in adult rats. They injected rats' stomachs with a dose of alcohol roughly equivalent to around four or five drinks in quick succession; enough to make their blood alcohol hit double the United States legal driving limit of 0.08%. The team also gave the animals a range of nicotine doses similar to those in the bodies of light, moderate or heavy smokers.In 'heavy smoking' animals, the nicotine slashed the rats' peak blood-alcohol level, which came about an hour after injection, in half. Blood alcohol of 'moderate smoking' animals dropped by around 30%, and animals mimicking light smokers were not affected. The results are reported in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
Chen hypothesized that nicotine slows the emptying of the stomach, which reduces the amount of alcohol which is absorbed by the body (as opposed to broken down in the stomach). Interestingly, this might also have implications for prescription drug users, slowing the amount and changing the time-course of the drug's action and impact.
Source: Parnell S.E., West J.R.& Chen W-J.A. . Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, 30. 1408 (2006).
Comments
Yes, it is well established that smoking cigarettes reduces the blood levels of antipsychotic drugs. This is thought to be one of the reasons why persons with schizophrenia tend to smoke a lot. They may smoke to reduce the effectiveness of their medications.
Posted by: Joseph j7uy5 | October 4, 2006 2:01 PM
Joseph, I had also been under the impression that some schizophrenics might smoke excessively to overcome the alpha7-nicotinic receptor subunit mutation common in the disease and that the nicotine might relieve some of the symptoms. Abbott and other pharma cos. had been/are still pursuing centrally-active nicotinic agonists, but it's been a few years since I looked at the literature.
Posted by: Abel Pharmboy | October 4, 2006 2:49 PM
Joseph,
I think you switched your wording. I've never seen any literature that supports the hypothesis that patients with severe mental illness intiate or increase smoking to decrease the effectiveness of their medications.
Everything I've seen shows that nicotine (or other chemicals) helps to treat the disease symptom's.
Posted by: Dan R. | October 4, 2006 5:22 PM
Hmm... thats funny... as an undergrad we were looking at a similar issue (nicotine ameliorates alcohols effects on hippocampal based learning) and we found that nicotine had no effect on blood alcohol levels in mice. But then again - a null results isn't really good proof of that.
Posted by: steve | October 5, 2006 1:21 PM
Yeah, nicotine reduces the level of everything in the blood. By controlling the excesses and inefficiencies of the mind, nicotine instigates an orderly and efficient psycho-somatic nexus whereby alcohol and calories are processed and digested quickly and easily. That's why nicotine prevents, and cures, Alzheimer's disease(some people don't know this yet).
Posted by: BannedChatter | September 4, 2007 1:17 PM
I don't know about the effects of nicotine on alzheimers, also nicotine does not reduce blood levels of everything, a little too inclusive. I mean does it reduce blood levels of blood. Anyways, schizophrenics smoke to relieve psychotic symptoms because nicotine acts as a mild antipsychotic. This is why in mental health care facilities schizophrenics that are too paranoid to take their meds and are allowed to smoke and "encouraged" to do so. Of course the doctors inform them that smoking is bad for their health and they should stop and take their meds but with difficult patients, it is allowed because it is far better than the patients not taking meds and not smoking. They do not smoke to reduce blood levels of antipsychotics. That is wrong period. There are many peer reviewed scientific publications that have investigated the antipsychotic effects nicotine and confirmed while the post above about pharm co's investigating nicotine derivatives and nicotinic drugs is also true. It was also confirmed by psychologists that work at mental health care facilities that I have talked to.
Posted by: s | December 27, 2007 1:42 PM
S, you are right that BannedChatter is completely wrong. I have no idea where they are coming from with that comment.
Posted by: Shelley Batts | December 27, 2007 3:03 PM