NICOTINE is just as effective as the drug Ritalin at treating some symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a small study suggests. That may be why children with ADHD are twice as likely to smoke as others 鈥� they could be self-medicating.
Doctors won鈥檛 be prescribing nicotine patches, though, as this would probably lead to addiction, says Alexandra Potter, the clinical psychologist at the University of Vermont who led the work. But drug companies are developing drugs that target nicotine receptors in the brain without the harmful effects of nicotine.
Potter鈥檚 team studied eight non-smoking teenagers with ADHD. They found that nicotine was just as effective as Ritalin at improving attention and also 鈥渂ehavioural inhibition鈥� 鈥� being able to stop doing something once you have started. The results were presented at the Society for Neurosciences meeting in New Orleans this week.
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