Brain nicotinic acetylcholine receptor availability and response to smoking cessation treatment: a randomized trial.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Cigarette smoking leads to upregulation of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in the human brain, including the common α4β2* nAChR subtype. While subjective aspects of tobacco dependence have been extensively examined as predictors of quitting smoking with treatment, no studies to our knowledge have yet reported the relationship between the extent of pretreatment upregulation of nAChRs and smoking cessation.

Objective

To determine whether the degree of nAChR upregulation in smokers predicts quitting with a standard course of treatment.

Design, setting, and participants

Eighty-one tobacco-dependent cigarette smokers (volunteer sample) underwent positron emission tomographic (PET) scanning of the brain with the radiotracer 2-FA followed by 10 weeks of

SUBMITTER: Brody AL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4634637 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature