Rate of Nicotine Metabolism May Predict Best Way to Quit Smoking

That is the title of this article I am writing about. "How quickly a smoker metabolizes nicotine could determine which type of cessation strategy has the best chance of success, according to a new study that represents one of the largest pharmacogentic analyses of tobacco dependence to date. The study found that smokers with normal metabolism levels had better quit rates with varenicline therapy, which does not involve nicotine replacement, compared to a nicotine patch. For people with slow metabolism, the patch may be the better option." I quit seventeen years ago.  I used wellbutrin and did it have the side effects.  It had so many side effects that I did not even notice or crave cigarettes. My mouth was something awful tasting.  The was one of the only medicines that I had so many side effects.  My friend gave me a list of the side effects because he had taken a class on stopping smoking. I had every one on that list.
The article goes on to say: "It has been known that smokers clear nicotine from their bodies at different rates, but until now it wasn't known if this measurable trait -- the nicotine metabolite ratio (NMR) -- could be used to optimize treatment and improve outcomes.  The study researchers randomly assigned 1,246 smokers (662 slow metabolizers and 584 normal metabolizers) to 11 weeks of the nicotine patch and placebo pill, varenicline and placebo patch, or double placebo; all participants also received behavioral counseling." I know I had never tried to quit before that one I did.  I know when I used to go to jail I could not be without my cigarettes.  I would buy two for one or if no one had any smokes but roll your owns that is what I would smoke .  The idea that I would quit never came to mind. I finally quit because I wanted to seem my granddaughter at my house and daughter did not want her around smoke.  It was time anyway because I had a bad cough and this guy in the elevator told me I would not live that long if I kept smoking so it seemed like the right time.      
The article ends witth: "After 11 weeks of treatment, normal metabolizers taking varencline were about twice likely not to smoke as those using the nicotine patch.  And while slow metabolizers displayed similar effectiveness rates on varencline or the patch, they reported far fewer side effects for patch therapy." Those side effects can be rough.  That is why people with mental illness do not always take their medication because of all the side effects especially weight gain.                                                                                                                     

Research Attributes High Rates of Smoking among Mentally Ill to Addiction Vulnerability

Well this article talks about how smoking is not self-medicating when the person is mentally ill. “People with mental illness smoke at much higher rates than the overall population.  But the popular belief that they are self-medicating is most likely wrong, according to researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine.  Instead they report, research indicates that psychiatric disease makes the brain more susceptible to addiction. As smoking rates in the general population have fallen below 25 percent, smoking among the mentally ill has remained pervasive, encompassing an estimated half of all cigarettes sold.  Despite the well-known health dangers of tobacco consumption, smoking among the mentally ill has long been widely viewed as ‘self-medication’ reducing the incentive among health care professionals to encourage such patients to quit.” It has been fifteen years since I quit and I do not miss it.  I do not spend all my money on cigarettes.  I buy more food now.

The article says: “This is really a devastating problem for people with mental illness because of the broad health consequences of nicotine addiction, said R. Andrew Chambers, M. D., associate professor of psychiatry at the IU School of Medicine.  Nicotine addiction is the number one cause of premature death in the United States, and most of that morbidity and mortality is concentrated in people with mental illness.  In a report published recently in the journal Addiction Biology, the research team lead by Dr. Chambers reported the results of experiments using and established animal model of schizophrenia in which rats display a neuropsychiatric syndrome that closely resembles the disease.”  I for one want to live as long as I can.  I have said before that I want to be there when my youngest grandson grows up.  As I have said before I took wellbutrin to quit because of the side effects of taking it for a month I quit smoking and I quit the wellbutrin. I just put both out of my mind.
It goes on to say: “Both the schizophrenia-model rats and normal rats were given access to intravenous self-administration of nicotine.  The mentally ill rats acquired nicotine use faster and consumed more nicotine, Dr. Chambers said.  Then when we cut them off from access to nicotine, they worked much harder to restore access to nicotine than did the normal ‘control rats.’ In additional testing, the researchers found that administration of nicotine provided equal, but minimal, cognitive benefits to both groups of rats when performing a memory test. When the nicotine was withdrawn, however, both groups of rats were more cognitively impaired, so that any cognitive benefits to nicotine administration were ‘paid for’ by cognitive impairments later.”  When I smoked I can remember waking up I would have to have at least three to four cigarettes right in a row.  A friend from college would say as soon as we have a break Charles is smoking.
The article says: “These results strongly suggest that what has changed in mental illnesses to cause smoking at such high rates results in a co-morbid addiction to which the mentally ill are highly biologically vulnerable.  The evidence suggests that the vulnerability is an involuntary biological result of the way the brain is designed and how it develops after birth, rather than it being about a rational choice to use nicotine as a medicine, Dr. Chambers said.  The data, he said, point to neuro-developmental mechanisms that increase the risk of addiction. Better understanding of those mechanisms could lead to better prevention and treatment strategies, especially among mentally ill smokers, Dr. Chambers said.”  When you are mentally ill you smoke like a train.  That is what I used to do.  I do know I suffered those thirty days trying to quit.  I do not know to this day what made it so easy to quit besides the thirty days.  Having my baby granddaughter come over on weekends and anytime I could babysit or was it the wellbutrin.  In which the side effects were bad. I do know I am better off having quit.

Saving Your Life from Nicotine

BEFORE I GET INTO The BLOG, I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND OUR READERS THAT The RECOVERY BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW LOCATION: OUR BLOG WILL CONTINUE FROM OUR NEW HOME:  http://www.mhcd.org/blog I have been a tobacco user since I was 10 years old. I have always had nervous tension, and have experienced anxiety from time to time and to this day I still smoke cigarettes, though I have tried to quit a few times in my life. The feelings of tension were a bit too much to go without having to smoke to relieve the tension I was facing and so I have ceased searching for a reason to quit even it becomes a reason of personal health. I have spoken to doctors about quitting, and have purchased patches, and other smoking aids to end my smoking, yet to no avail; I am addicted to tobacco and I am also a mental health consumer.
People with mental illnesses use more tobacco than those who have no mental illness and are less likely to quit smoking. Mental health consumers who are nicotine users have a greater mortality rate than the greater population as a whole. It is believed that because of biological and psychological reasons and because of certain other social reasons that there is a higher use of tobacco products among people with mental illness, including teen-agers and adolescents. Someone once said to me that smoking cigarettes and or other nicotine like products is just a cheap way to run from other problems or even more to find something other to do. For reasons of certain biological reasons which are neurobiological, the use of nicotine makes it harder to quit especially with complicated withdrawals.
http://www.tcln.org/bea/docs/Quit_MHToolkit.pdf
Nicotine affects people who may be schizophrenic and these affectations tend to lessen negative symptoms of which they suffer from. It is has been published that nicotine enhances concentration and learning, yet this is said of persons suffering with psychotic disorders or cognitive dysfunctions or suffering from side effects from certain medications. Don’t think that I am pro-tobacco because I am a smoker; I do not like smoking at all and don’t think anyone should take up the habit simply because of the many negative attitudes that go with smoking and using other products. Other factors include nicotine’s effect on moods, feelings of pleasure and individuals seeking self medication.
Nicotine might relieve tension temporarily and anxiety not to mention other negative feelings which I have yet to experience, and I know I use lot throughout the day, yet other reasons are social, being a part of a group or participating in social functions. These are stigmas, such as not being able to quit smoking and stress as well. Try to change your life as a nicotine user; it’s the one experience to keep with self respect without it.

Written by Donald S.

JUST A REMINDER THAT THE RECOVERY BLOG IS MOVING TO A NEW ADDRESS: OUR NEW HOME IS: http://mhcd.org/blog