PHARMACOLOGY OF NICOTINE AND ITS THERAPEUTIC USE IN SMOKING CESSATIONAND NEURODEGENERATIVE DISORDERS

During the last decade, nicotine has been used increasingly as an aid to smoking cessation and has been found to be a safe and efficacious t reatment for the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. This period has also seen significant advances in our understanding of the mechanisms unde rlying the psychopharmacological responses to nicotine, including, par ticularly, those that have been implicated in nicotine addiction. This paper reviews this decade of progress in the specific context of the therapeutic application of nicotine to the treatment of smoking cessat ion. Other putative future applications, particularly in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, are also reviewed. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Inc.