The first study of its kind was presented at the 35th Annual Conference of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. The article points to a possible reason why women tend to have more difficulty than men when it comes to quitting cigarettes. Information taken from the portal R7.
Research shows that nicotine lowers estrogen levels in a woman’s brain. – Photo: Freepick/Disclosure/NDResearch shows that the usual dose, equivalent to one cigarette, lowers estrogen, which is an important hormone present in the female brain.
“We are still not sure what the behavioral and cognitive outcomes are, it’s just that nicotine works in this area of the brain. However, we have noticed that the affected brain system is exposed to addictive drugs such as nicotine,” explains lead researcher of the study, Prof. Erika Komasko from Uppsala University, Sweden, in a statement.
The region of the brain she mentioned is the thalamus, which is responsible for behavioral and emotional responses.
Women are known to be more resistant to nicotine replacement in smoking cessation treatments, in addition to having more relapses than men when trying to quit smoking.
Women still “pose a greater vulnerability to the heredity of smoking and are at greater risk of developing primary smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer and heart attacks,” the researcher adds.
“Now we need to understand whether the action of nicotine on the hormonal system is involved in any of these reactions,” says Erica.
Wim van den Brink, emeritus professor of psychiatry and addictions at the Academic Medical Center of the University of Amsterdam, says that “tobacco addiction is a complex disorder with many co-factors.”
“This specific effect of nicotine on the thalamus (and estrogen production) is unlikely to explain all of the observed differences in development, treatment, and outcomes between male and female smokers.
This work is still a long way from a nicotine-induced reduction in estrogen production to a reduction in the risk of nicotine addiction and the negative effects of treatment and relapse in female smokers, but deserves further study.”
Source: Ndmais