Advances in Cigarette Cessation
Sunday, May 6th, 2007Jude Lewis submitted this entry:
Stopping smoking is now considerably more complicated than it was when I was a little kid. While everyone agrees addiction to nicotine is the primary reason cigarettes are so hard to quit, not everyone agrees that the prescription of antidepressants is a safe solution. Norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors and dopamine reuptake inhibitors are history; now there is a medication available which specifically targets nicotine receptors in the brain. The argument is that a drug which acts as a nicotinic agonist specifically, instead of as familiar antidepressant generally, will be safer for the general population and have fewer side effects. This does seem scientifically sound, but introduces yet another layer of pharmaceutical complexity in combatting smoking.
Very best regards,
Jude Lewis
General Consultant
Consultants General
http://www.consultantsgeneral.com
