Nicotine and Memory Problems

[Vocalek]

Is there a study you can point me to in regard to nicotine improving memory? That sounds interesting! Did not know that!

Go to this Web site and start searching:

PubMed Home


Typing "nicotine memory" in the search field (label="for") returns 670 articles. Not all are relevant, but most are.

When the search terms = nicotine "cognitive dysfunction"
there are 46 results. I don't recomment searching on "cognitive" without pairing it up with another term such as "dysfunction" or "impariment" because you will get lots of results about CBT (cognitive behavior therapy).

These two back-to-back results (search term = nicotine treating memory) shows that there appears to be a dose-related response to nicotine. The 2 mg gum did not cut the mustard!

Cigarette abstinence impairs memory and metacognition despite administration of 2 mg nicotine gum.
Kelemen WL, Fulton EK.
Exp Clin Psychopharmacol. 2008 Dec;16(6):521-31.
PMID: 19086773 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Related Articles
14:
Efficacy of a nicotine (4 mg)-containing lozenge on the cognitive impairment of nicotine withdrawal.
Atzori G, Lemmonds CA, Kotler ML, Durcan MJ, Boyle J.
J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2008 Dec;28(6):667-74.
PMID: 19011436 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[AngelBunny]

I wonder if this would be the case with all Alzeimer's/Parkinson's type conditions ... my grandmother is one of five sisters and of the five we have lost three in the last two years to either an Alzeimer's related complications (one had cancer and didn't get treated because of her dementia; one took too much Coumadin because of the dementia and bled out internally as a result; one died last week of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy). None of them smoked or had any nicotine habit ... my grandmother is the only one of the sisters that has not developed either disease ... the only other surviving sister has severe Alzeimer's at this point.

I would be lying if I didn't say that, along with the general family heartache of watching them waste away, a huge fear of mine is eventually developing the same issues because of genetics. If nicotine is an inhibitor for that I am going to continue vaping my brains out forever ...

[mtndude]

Interesting thing... After two weeks of going without analogs, I took a few puffs off of a Camel Wide light and proceeded to return a phone call to a friend that I call rather frequently. I could not for the life of me remember the telephone number, a number that I know by heart.

[JustMeAgain]

I started to multi-quote this thread, then realized that I'd have to quote almost everyone that has posted here, so I thought it might be better to say my heart goes out to all of you.

Those of you that have posted as having ADD, count me in as well. I was one of those parents who fought tooth and nail when my son was diagnosed - totally anti-meds on my part. I did hundreds of hours of research on the subject. Then his self esteem took a HUGE plummet, and I knew I had to do whatever was right for him, forget about what I thought.

Ironically, a few years later I mentioned to my Dr. that I thought I was self medicating my own ADD with nicotine, and he prescribed me Adderall XR. It was absolutely life changing, and my only regret was that I had withheld it from my son when I should not have.

Before I started taking the med, I was famous for not finishing things. I had all kinds of things going at once, just hopped from one to the next, but always off on some other tangent before I was done.

I don't feel anything from the medicine except that now when I'm doing something, I'm thinking about what I AM doing, not what I want to do or what I'm going to do next. That's it - no side effects, no excess energy or insomnia. Just the ability to focus and complete things.

I have parents in their 80's too. My dad is fine, a little slower at 86 but mentally A-OK. My mom, whose 83, will ask the same question 3-4 times in a conversation and then a few more times with the same questions the next time I talk to her. She can still keep up her house, pay bills and cook, just forgets what is said to her, which is something I had problems with pre-meds.

I know she has ADD too, and that combined with her age is making it more obvious. Us ADDers can usually manage to seem ok, but combined with aging would make it far more difficult.

I've talked to her doctor and there's just not much to do since stimulants do affect blood pressure. He wants to send her to a memory clinic, but the idea makes her very upset and agitated and she says she's not going.

I always wonder how many older people are out there that have ADD and are misdiagnosed.

Ya'all hang in there.

jm

[3DVapor]

Every time I quit smoking (about 8 or 9 times over the last 12 years) I would get the 'Stupids'. My brain noticeably slowed down and when I would start smoking again, I would be back to 'Normal'.
Didn't have that happen this time with Vaping - yeah!