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Pharmacological Determinants of Cigarette Smoking

Jack E. Henningfield,Leslie M. Schuh,Stephen J. Heishman-1995-01-01-Birkhäuser Basel eBooks
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TL;DRAbstract

Tobacco has been used ritualistically to produce intoxication and hallucinations. Most of today’s cigarette smokers, however, use tobacco daily, at intervals of less than one hour during waking hours. Since early in the twentieth century, it has been understood that this behavior is driven largely by nicotine’s pharmacological actions and has little to do with the taste of nicotine. Nicotine’s role in tobacco use parallels that of morphine in the use of opium derivatives. It produces CNS reinforcing effects, tolerance and physiological dependence, pharmacological effects smokers find valuable, and pleasurable effects induced by the central actions of nicotine. Nicotine and other smoke constituents also provide sensory stimuli which become conditioned reinforcers and further strengthen tobacco self-administration.

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Tobacco has been used ritualistically to produce intoxication and hallucinations. Most of today’s cigarette smokers, however, use tobacco daily, at intervals of less than one hour during waking hours. Since early in the twentieth century, it has been understood that this behavior is driven largely by nicotine’s pharmacological actions and has little to do with the taste of nicotine. Nicotine’s role in tobacco use parallels that of morphine in the use of opium derivatives. It produces CNS reinforcing effects, tolerance and physiological dependence, pharmacological effects smokers find valuable, and pleasurable effects induced by the central actions of nicotine. Nicotine and other smoke constituents also provide sensory stimuli which become conditioned reinforcers and further strengthen tobacco self-administration.

Keywords

NicotineParallelsMorphineCigarette smokeMedicineOpiumPsychologyAddiction

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