Nicotine Polacrilex Gum and Sustained Attention

Parrott, Andrew C.; Craig, Debbie I.; Haines, Mary-Enid; Winder, G.

doi:10.1007/978-3-0348-7457-1_72

Cited by 3 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Given the relative hypersensitivity of the cholinergic system in DAT and the possibility that continuously applied high doses of nicotine may actually desensitize nicotinic receptors and disrupt cognitive processes [51], it would be of interest to pursue the effects of day-long, intermittent multiple low (2 mg) nicotine dosing in patients with the intention of assessing the electrophysiologic and cognitive sequelea and the predictive power of EEG profile changes in relation to cognitive response. Controlled, repeated exposure to the low (2 mg) nicotine dose throughout a single test day would appear to be behaviorally appropriate, as the dose has been shown to facilitate performance on psychomotor, attention, vigilance and short-term memory tasks and the cognitive effects appear not to be subject to the development of acute nicotine tolerance [108][109][110][111].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute Nicotine Administration in Alzheimer’s Disease: An Exploratory EEG Study

et al. 2000

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Previous findings of cognitive deficits and EEG slowing in Alheimer’s patients, together with independent reports of the performance enhancing and electrocortical activating properties of nicotine in normal adults, stimulated this study to examine the acute effects of nicotine on spectrum-analyzed EEG in patients with dementia of the Alzheimer type (DAT). Thirteen patients, 6 currently receiving cholinesterase inhibitor treatment and the remaining being medication free, were administered 2 mg of nicotine polacrilex under randomized, placebo-controlled conditions. Compared to age-regressed EEG norms, the pretreatment EEG spectrums of patients in general were characterized by excessive slow (delta and theta)-wave power, diminished fast (alpha and beta)-wave power and slow mean alpha and total band frequencies. Although postnicotine EEG indices remained within the abnormal range, nicotine, compared to placebo, significantly shifted EEG towards normal values by reducing slow wave (relative delta and theta) power and augmenting fast (relative alpha-1, alpha-2, beta-1) wave power. No differences were observed between treated and nontreated patients in response to nicotine. The results are discussed in relation to cholinergic and brain arousal systems and their relationship to cognitive processes.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acute Nicotine Administration in Alzheimer’s Disease: An Exploratory EEG Study

et al. 2000

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“…, recommend this procedure in their classic nicotine/ performance review. Similarly, Parrott et al (1990) in a brief review of the performance effects of nicotine gum, showed that performance change was evident only in studies using nicotine-deprived subjects. Caution must, however, be exercised in the interpretation of any performance changes found in these studies, as it is very difficult to unravel the effects of nicotine deprivation, from these of nicotine reinstatement.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Smoking deprivation and cigarette reinstatement: effects upon visual attention

Parrott

Roberts

1991

J Psychopharmacol

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Twenty regular smokers ( > 15 cigarettes/day), were tested on a letter cancellation task, over four successive days. On one of the test days subjects were smoking deprived for > 12 h, while on the other days they were not nicotine deprived (smoking was allowed until 1 h before testing). The first letter cancellation test was given prior to smoking. Then one cigarette was smoked and a second letter cancellation test given. Performance was significantly impaired by nicotine deprivation, when assessed both by response time (p < 0.05) and target detection (p < 0.001). Cigarette smoking led to significant improvements in both speed and accuracy with the deprived smokers. However, this improved performance basically reflected a return to near baseline values. The performance of the non-deprived subjects remained largely unchanged. There was no evidence of performance differences between high, mid and low frequency letter targets. Each showed an accuracy reduction of about 5% during smoking deprivation, and returned to baseline following nicotine reinstatement. Thus, while sustained attention was significantly influenced by nicotine status, there was no evidence of altered attentional selectivity.

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“…This work has been widely replicated in other laboratories (for reviews, see references 58 and 63). Of particular interest are improvements in rapid information processing seen with nicotine gum 64 - 66 and with a nicotine inhaler. 67 This body of work identified that, improvements in normal cognitive function could be produced by pharmacological agents, and showed that computerized tasks were particularly suitable for identifying such improvements, notably those in accuracy and speed.…”

Section: Screening For Desired Cognitive Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The value of assessing cognitive function in drug development

Wesnes¹

2000

Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience

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This paper reviews the value and utility of measuring cognitive function in the development of new medicines by reference to the most widely used automated system in clinical research. Evidence is presented from phase 1 to 3 of the nature and quality of the information that can be obtained by applying the Cognitive Drug Research computerized assessment system to ongoing clinical trials. Valuable evidence can be obtained even in the first trial in which a novel compound is administered to man. One application of such testing is to ensure that novel compounds are relatively free from cognition-impairing properties, particularly in relation to competitor products. Another is to ensure that unwanted interactions with alcohol and other medications do not occur, or, if they do, to put them in context. In many patient populations, cognitive dysfunction occurs as a result of the disease process, and newer medicines which can treat the symptoms of the disease without further impairing function can often reveal benefits as the disease-induced cognitive dysfunction is reduced. Another major application is to identify benefits for compounds designed to enhance cognitive function. Such effects can be sought in typical phase 1 trials, or a scopolamine model of the core deficits of Alzheimer's disease can be used to screen potential antidernentia drugs. Ultimately, of course, such effects can be demonstrated using properly validated and highly sensitive automated procedures in the target populations. The data presented demonstrate that the concept of independently assessing a variety of cognitive functions is crucial in helping differentiate drugs, types of dementia, and different illnesses. Such information offers a unique insight into how the alterations to various cognitive functions will manifest themselves in everyday behavior. This reveals a major limitation of scales that yield a single score, because such limited information does not permit anything but a quantitative interpretation; and the concept of "more" cognitive function or "less" is manifestly inappropriate for something as complex and diverse as the interplay between cognitive function and human behavior. Finally, the next generations of cognitive testing are described. Testing via the telephone has just been introduced and will have dramatic effects on the logistics of conducting cognitive testing in large patient trials. Testing via the Internet is not far off either, and will come fully into play as the proportion of homes connected to the Internet increases in Europe and North America. There are no sound reasons for not wishing to include cognitive function testing in the development protocol of any novel medicine.

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Nicotine Polacrilex Gum and Sustained Attention

Cited by 3 publications

References 5 publications

Acute Nicotine Administration in Alzheimer’s Disease: An Exploratory EEG Study

Acute Nicotine Administration in Alzheimer’s Disease: An Exploratory EEG Study

Smoking deprivation and cigarette reinstatement: effects upon visual attention

The value of assessing cognitive function in drug development

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