| STUDY |
Alcoholics are nearly twice as likely to suffer from major depression, and more than half of people with BPD have a substance-abuse problem. Depressed people smoke cigarettes more than others and have a harder time quitting. The habit may represent a subconscious effort to self-medicate with nicotine--a hypothesis supported by research conducted by Howard University associate pharmacology professor Yousef Tizabi and colleagues. They studied rats that serve as a model for depression and found that the rats' symptoms improve when they are given nicotine. When the rats are given mecamylamine, a nicotinic receptor antagonist, the beneficial effect of nicotine is blocked. The researchers believe that nicotinic receptor agonists could prove useful in treating depression
|