Nicotine is a chemical in tobacco that makes it addictive. Nicotine addiction, like addiction to cocaine or alcohol, is characterized by compulsive drug seeking and abuse. Cigarettes, cigars and pipes, along with smokeless tobacco products, all contain nicotine. Use of any of those results in the inability to stop, even with awareness of the serious health problems that can result. The properties of nicotine that produce pleasant feelings and withdrawal symptoms lead to addiction, causing the continued use of harmful tobacco products.
How Nicotine Causes Addiction
Using tobacco products results in the delivery of nicotine to the brain. Nicotine causes the release of brain chemicals that help regulate mood and behavior. One of these brain chemicals is dopamine, which makes you feel good. That dopamine boost is part of the process of addiction. This pleasurable effect of nicotine resolves quickly, though, which causes the tobacco user to continue seeking and using it to maintain nicotine's pleasurable effects and prevent uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms.
Effects
When individuals are addicted to nicotine, they can't stop using tobacco even though it's causing harm. The temporarily pleasing effects of nicotine quickly give way to withdrawal symptoms if another dose isn't taken. Nicotine withdrawal includes irritability, restlessness, anxiety, intense cravings, depression, anger and difficulty sleeping. Tobacco users may have made one or many serious but unsuccessful attempts to stop. They may continue using tobacco even if they have health problems related to it, such as lung or heart disease.
Treatment
Treating nicotine addiction successfully requires tackling both the physical and psychological aspects.
Nicotine replacement can help alleviate the physical aspects of withdrawal, and is available as gum, patches, nasal spray and an inhaler. Cravings can continue due to the psychological aspects of addiction, and behavioral therapies may be needed to help with environmental triggers of craving.
Medications such as Zyban and Chantix, available by prescription, can alleviate the desire for nicotine.
Stop smoking support programs, including groups, classes, and telephone or Internet-based help are available for those addicted to nicotine from any source.
Warnings
Physical and psychological addiction to nicotine requires the continued use of tobacco products that are known to cause serious health problems. These health risks include lung cancer and cancers of the mouth, throat, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, bladder, cervix and blood. Potential health problems also include heart and circulatory system diseases, frequent illnesses such as colds and flu, and premature aging and damage to the skin. The health of others is also put at risk through secondhand smoke.
Expert Insight
Dr. David B. Abrams, the executive director of the Steven A. Schroeder National Institute for Tobacco Research at the American Legacy Foundation, says, "The general public is not as aware of the value of using evidence-based treatment as they should be. When we do surveys of current smokers, a fair number of them actually believe that nicotine replacement products could be as harmful to their health as smoking, which is absolutely not true. It's the carcinogens in tobacco, and not the nicotine, that's the really harmful substance. Unfortunately, I think people are not using the best pharmacologic treatments and the best behavioral treatments. They still try to use willpower."
