SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH ON NICOTINE AND TOBACCO

The proceedings of the second annual scientific conference of the Soci ety for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco are summarized. The goal of t he annual conference was to disseminate information about ongoing nico tine research from biological, behavioral and social perspectives. Dat a were presented describing our current understanding of the structure and function of neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, by which nicotine exerts most, if not all, of its effects in the brain. The con formational complexity of receptor subunits expressed in different bra in areas contributes significantly to the complexity of responses obse rved to nicotinic agonists. Nicotine is being developed as a medicatio n that might be used to maintain smoking cessation and to treat variou s medical diseases. The potential toxicity of nicotine, apart from cig arette smoking, is an important variable in assessing the benefits and risks of such therapeutic applications. The risks of nicotine-contain ing medications appear to be far less than those associated with tobac co use. Recent data indicate that cigarette smoking is increasing amon g youth in the United States. Adolescent smokers are interested in qui tting and make frequent quit attempts, but are usually nor successful. Effective methods are needed to manage adolescent smokers before they become heavily addicted. Nicotine replacement as a pharmacological tr eatment for smoking cessation has made a significant contribution in i mproving quit rates. New medications have been developed that target s pecific populations of smokers.