Abstract
Prior studies have demonstrated that both nicotine administration and cigarette smoking lead to dopamine (DA) release in the ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens. In tobacco-dependent individuals, smoking denicotinized cigarettes leads to reduced craving, but less pleasure, than smoking regular cigarettes. Using denicotinized cigarettes and 11C-raclopride positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, we sought to determine if nicotine is necessary for smoking-induced DA release. Sixty-two tobacco-dependent smokers underwent 11C-raclopride PET scanning, during which they smoked either a regular or denicotinized cigarette (double-blind). Change in 11C-raclopride binding potential (BP) in the ventral striatum from before to after smoking was determined as an indirect measure of DA release. Cigarette craving, anxiety, and mood were monitored during scanning. Smoking a regular cigarette resulted in a significantly greater mean reduction in ventral striatal 11C-raclopride BP than smoking a denicotinized cigarette. Although both groups had reductions in craving and anxiety with smoking, the regular cigarette group had a greater improvement in mood. For the total group, change in BP correlated inversely with change in mood, indicating that greater smoking-induced DA release was associated with more smoking-related mood improvement. Thus, nicotine delivered through cigarette smoking appears to be important for ventral striatal DA release. Study findings also suggest that mood improvement from smoking is specifically related to ventral striatal DA release.
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Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (ALB (11RT-0024 and 16RT-0098), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (ALB (R01s DA15059 and DA20872)), the Veterans Administration (ALB (Merit Review Type I Award)), the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (ALB), and the Office of National Drug Control Policy (EDL (DABT63-00-C-1003)). We thank Josephine Ribe and Michael Clark for technical support in performing positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans, respectively.
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The author(s) declare that, except for income received from my primary employer, no financial support or compensation has been received from any individual or corporate entity over the past 3 years for research or professional service, and there are no personal financial holdings that could be perceived as constituting a potential conflict of interest.
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Brody, A., Mandelkern, M., Olmstead, R. et al. Ventral Striatal Dopamine Release in Response to Smoking a Regular vs a Denicotinized Cigarette. Neuropsychopharmacol 34, 282–289 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2008.87
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2008.87
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