Nicotine Patch Improves Memory in People With Mild Cognitive Impairment

[Pav]

Very interesting. Something good being said about Nicotene (albeit in patch form).

Nicotine Patch Improves Memory in People With Mild Cognitive Impairment - ABC News

The nicotine patch designed to help people quit smoking can also improve memory in older adults with mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, a small clinical trial found.


The trial involved 67 non-smokers with MCI, which is considered an intermediate between normal aging and dementia. People with MCI are more likely to develop Alzheimer's disease.


Half of the patients wore a skin patch that delivered 15 milligrams of nicotine per day; the other half wore a placebo patch. The study was double-blinded, meaning both the patients and the researchers were unaware who was getting the drug.


After six months, patients who wore the nicotine patch regained 46 percent of their age-adjusted "normal performance" on long-term memory tests, whereas patients in the placebo group worsened by 26 percent.

 

[yvilla]

Good find Pav, thanks.

 

[minigoat]

Curious about the placebo group and why their capacity diminished 26% over 6 months. That doesn't feel right in my opinion. Are they saying that once you have MCI it all goes downhill rather quickly for an individual?

Then i'm wondering how long the effects are retained for the group that had the real patch.

I'm thinking about all this because of my mother who recently quit after smoking for 60 years or so. She is sharp as a tack but i'm concerned none the less. She is not vaping or using an NRT btw.

This is an excellent article BTW, thanks

 

[wfx]

thank you. i've also heard of nicotine therapy for parkinsons. this is definitely worth further investigation.

 

[DrOckW]

Glad I saw your post, I read this today and was going to put it up. So... why can't I remember things? Must need 24mg.

 

[McDougal]

It's interesting that this study was released days after the unfavorable "study" of e-cigarettes.

 

[wfx]

Glad I saw your post, I read this today and was going to put it up. So... why can't I remember things? Must need 24mg.

oh if it were only that easy. up your dose and add some ginko for good measure. i wish. sadly it's going to be a more subtle effect.

 

[DrOckW]

I always want to take Ginko but I can never remember what it's called when I go to buy it.

 

[Sophey]

There was a segment on our local news (Seattle) about this. Exciting! I'm all for praise of nicotine -- even if it is in regards to the patch. Maybe this news will cause companies to ease up on the restrictions that have been put into effect regarding no-nicotine policies.

 

[Bill Godshall]

Another article on that study at
Could a nicotine patch slow dementia? – - CNN.com Blogs

 

[Pav]

Thanks. I find this type of news very interesting, even if it is framed in these articles that the only way to get the nicotene is through the patch. One of the most frequent misconceptions I get from people who I've told I quit smoking and went to vaping is that since I'm still getting nicotene it's just as dangerous.

 

[Vocalek]

Dr. Neal Benowitz is considered an expert on nicotine toxicity. Last fall, he chaired a session during the FDA's public workshop on Risks and Benefits of Long-term Use of NRTs. Because no research has been conducted on long-term use of NRTs (you're supposed to stop using them after 12 weeks or so), he turned to the research that has been conducted in Sweden and elsewhere on the health effects of switching from smoking to snus. Snus is a type of smokeless tobacco product that is processed in such a way to reduce the nitrosamines that are thought to be linked to tobacco-related cancers. Here are his conclusions:

• No evidence that nicotine causes or promotes cancer
• Nicotine may slightly increase the risk of MI and stroke. If so the risks are far lower than those of cigarette smoking
• Nicotine likely has adverse effects on reproduction, including increasing the risk of pre-eclampsia and preterm birth

So the bottom line is that switching to a non-smoked source of nicotine pretty much eliminates cancer risk. Of course it eliminates the risk of lung disease that inhaling tar and particulates involves. It greatly reduces risks of smoking-related heart attacks and strokes.

It might be a bad idea for a pregnant woman to use nicotine in any form. But if she can't quit, it sure seems that it will be less hazardous for her to use a smoke-free alternative than it would be to continue smoking.

Here is the link to the Benowitz slides: http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/NewsEvents/UCM232147.pdf

 

[Vocalek]

The abstract is now available on PubMed: Nicotine treatment of mild cognitive impairment: A... [Neurology. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI

Newhouse P, Kellar K, Aisen P, White H, Wesnes K, Coderre E, Pfaff A, Wilkins H, Howard D, Levin ED. Nicotine treatment of mild cognitive impairment: A 6-month double-blind pilot clinical trial. Neurology. 2012 Jan 10;78(2):91-101.

Some salient points from the full article:

Cognitive improvement is one of the best established therapeutic effects of nicotine.¹¹ In human studies, nicotine improves performance in smokers on cognitively demanding attentional tasks.^12–14 In clinical studies, memory improvement was initially seen with IV nicotine in subjects with AD.¹⁵ Others have also found nicotine administration by subcutaneous injection or transdermal patch to improve cognitive function in AD.^{16 –19}

Furthermore, there is strong evidence that nicotine itself may be neuroprotective and may have a role in amyloid processing.³⁷

Here are the corresponding references, for anyone who wants to go on a PubMed treasure hunt.

11. Heishman SJ, Kleykamp BA, Singleton EG. Meta-analysis of the acute effects of nicotine and smoking on human performance. Psychopharmacology 2010;210:453– 469.
12. Provost SC, Woodward R. Effects of nicotine gum on repeated administration of the Stroop test. Psychopharmacology 1991;104:536 –540.
13. Rusted J, Graupner L, O’Connell N, Nicholls C. Does nicotine improve cognitive function? Psychopharmacology 1994;115:547–549.
14. Wesnes K, Revell A. The separate and combined effects of scopolamine and nicotine on human information processing. Psychopharmacology 1984;84:5–11.
15. Newhouse PA, Sunderland T, Tariot PN, et al. Intravenous nicotine in Alzheimer’s disease: a pilot study. Psychopharmacology 1988;95:171–175.
16. Jones GMM, Sahakian BJ, Levy R, Warburton DM, Gray JA. Effects of acute subcutaneous nicotine on attention, information processing and short-term memory in Alzheimer’s disease. Psychopharmacology 1992;108:485– 494.
17. Sahakian BJ, Jones GMM. The effects of nicotine on attention, information processing, and working memory in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type. In:Adlkofer F, Thruau K, eds. Effects of Nicotine on Biological Systems. Basel: Birkhauser Verlag; 1991:623–230.
18. White HK, Levin ED. Four-week nicotine skin patch treatment effects on cognitive performance in Alzheimer’s disease. Psychopharmacology 1999;143:158 –165.
19. Wilson AL, Langley LK, Monley J, et al. Nicotine patches in Alzheimer’s disease: pilot study on learning, memory, and safety. Pharmacol Biochem Behav 1995; 51:509 –514.

37. Kihara T, Shimohama S, Sawada H, et al. a7 nicotinic receptor transduces signals to phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase to block a B-amyloid-induced neurotoxicity. J Biol Chem 2001;276:13541–13546.

 

[Vocalek]

Thanks. I find this type of news very interesting, even if it is framed in these articles that the only way to get the nicotene is through the patch. One of the most frequent misconceptions I get from people who I've told I quit smoking and went to vaping is that since I'm still getting nicotene it's just as dangerous.

Most of these studies use non-smokers (to avoid any confounding effects of active smoking). Novices tend to use the nicotine gum and lozenges exactly the way they would a non-nicotine version, which is a guaranteed way to generate vomiting. Also, the taste of these products can be off-putting to never-users of tobacco. I think vaping would be a hard sell to most 75 year old never-smokers. So, the patch may be the best delivery vehicle at this point in time for non-smokers.

 

[Bill Godshall]

A FOXNEWS story as well
Can Nicotine Patch Help Memory Loss? | Fox News