Scientists Tie Part of Brain to Urge to Smoke

[DoYouEverWonder]

January 25, 2007

Scientists studying stroke patients are reporting that an injury to a specific part of the brain, near the ear, can instantly and permanently break a smoking habit, effectively erasing the most stubborn of addictions. People with the injury who stopped smoking found that their bodies, as one man put it, “forgot the urge to smoke.”

The new finding, which is to appear in the journal Science on Friday, is likely to alter the course of addiction research, pointing researchers toward new ideas for treatment, experts say. While no one is suggesting brain injury as a solution for addiction, the findings suggest that therapies might focus on the insula, a prune-sized region under the frontal lobes that is thought to register gut feelings and is apparently a critical part of the network that sustains addictive behavior.

Previous research on addicts focused on regions of the cortex involved in thinking and decision-making. But while those regions are involved in maintaining habits, the new study suggests that they are not as central.

The study did not examine dependence on alcohol, cocaine or other substances. Yet smoking is as at least as hard to quit as any habit, and it probably involves the same brain circuits, experts said. Most smokers who manage to quit do so only after repeated attempts, and the craving for cigarettes usually lasts for years, if not a lifetime.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/science/25cnd-brain.html?em&ex=1169874000&en=ba479bf4755ef5af&ei=5087%0A

[saracat]

1. Great.Next they'll find a labotomy helps us lose weight!

[keta11]

2. I so want this injury!! Where to go get it, thats the

$5/ pack/ day question.

[jeff30997]

3. Great! That crap is slowly killing me so...

I have a big knife in my hand:Goodbye insula!:evilgrin:

[Infinite Hope]

4. Must be the stupid, suicidal part of the brain.

:sarcasm:

[truthisfreedom]

5. Willpower seems to work when quitting cigarettes (I've done it a few times) but a moment's weakness

can easily set me to smoking again.

I'm determined to not begin smoking again, after 6 months without cheating. Smoking always bothered me... it stinks, it irritates my throat, it makes me dizzy, and there's no real physiological reward that I can detect. I was always a night-time smoker only, a social smoker who couldn't stand the taste unless I was having a drink and was surrounded by other smokers. The recent indoor smoking bans in Minnesota have really helped me quit this time. I bet they're helping a lot of people become and maintain status as ex-smokers.

[Nevernose]

8. Statistically, willpower works > 5% of the time

At least according to the American Cancer Society. Compare that to heroin, which has, depending upon the study, a 25-50 percent recovery rate. Aids like lozenges, inhalers, certain antidepressant drugs, and therapy, in the right combination and under an expert's supervision, can boost that average up to ~60%.

Drinking is the most common trigger for a lot of smokers, especially those only MOSTLY addicted (remember Princess Bride:)?).

Personally, I smoke the way I still drink or used to take drugs: in a cycle, three weeks on and three weeks off. It drives the women crazy. And not in a good way.

[thecrow]

6. I wonder if this got affected when I had a stroke

One of the symptoms was that I had absolutely no urge to smoke.
Mine was a non-paralytic stroke, in the basal ganglia.
It was a few days before we actually got a diagnosis; the main symptom was that I couldn't talk or write, though we didn't connect it to a stroke
As the brain swelling receded over the next months the urge came back

[JudyM]

7. Seems like if they 'fix' a person's brain they won't enjoy chocolate or wine afterward.

That'd be a drag. ;->

[VegasWolf]

9. No worry! The insula has specific receptors for nicotine. They want to target those receptors. nt

[Acadia Blue]

10. I quit after 12 years of heavy smoking and it was sooooo hard

to do. At the time there was no wellbutin or whatever and I just had to deal with feeling like a cat with my hair all puffed out for 2 weeks, and then think about cigarettes for 3 years and I still dream about them. lol

[NashVegas]

11. Sexual Abuse Linked to Smoking in Women

A new study shows women who were sexually abused as children are nearly four-times more likely to be current smokers than women who didn't report sexual abuse. They were also two-times more likely to have started smoking before age 14.

The overall rate of cigarette smoking has been declining over past decades. However, smoking in adolescent and adult women has been increasing over recent years. Now researchers say the increase in smoking for girls and women may be due to mental anguish by sexual abuse.

For the study, Figueroa-Moseley and colleagues reviewed anonymous written surveys of 296 women. The women ranged in age from 18 to 74 years, and were racially, economically and socially diverse. Researchers defined childhood sexual abuse as sexual fondling, attempted rape, or rape before age 17.

In all analyses of the study, researchers found childhood sexual abuse was a better predictor of smoking than social variables of income, age and ethnicity. The direct relationship between past sexual abuse and smoking in adult women was so great that researchers didn't consider the amount of abuse an important variable. They say the women most likely picked up smoking as a coping mechanism in response to the trauma of experiencing childhood sexual abuse.

http://no-smoking.org/jan05/01-27-05-2.html

I really think the scientists in the OP are working on the wrong folks.

[The2ndWheel]

12. It's always something

If you don't continue using the therapies, then you'll start smoking again. Everyone wants your money.

I'm sure there won't be any problems with these solutions. We'll reach that perfect state of existence if it means we have to die trying. Unless we cure death.

[phiddle]

13. That business about the insula rang a bell.

Researchers have recently discovered that meditation practices induce physiological changes in the insula:
"In the study, published in the current issue of NeuroReport, the researchers found four areas of meditators' brains to be thicker than those of non-meditators, and two were of particular interest: the right-side insula, which is part of the brain's cerebral cortex, and a small section of the prefrontal cortex.
The insula is "a wonderful area of the brain," said Sara Lazar, a research neuroscientist at Mass General, lead author of the study and an experienced meditator. She described it as a kind of central switchboard that "connects the reptilian brain with higher-order cortical areas." It moderates heart and breathing rates and integrates cognition, emotions and physiology.
http://10outof10.blogspot.com/2006/11/meditation-increases-grey-matter-in.html

So, maybe meditation as a part of anti-smoking therapy?