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Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

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Re: Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

#121

Post by btilly »

PerryCox wrote: post #108
beambot wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your psychiatrist runs a practice and you're mad that they are practicing rather than researching ? That seems like an unrealistic expectation. If your doc was doing more research, then they probably wouldn't be practicing as much. It's like asking you to be a professional developer and do cutting edge CS research -- that's pretty rare. Tracking nicotine vs your mood strikes me as being "research" -- especially since…

I don't believe he is mad that his psychiatrist is not doing academic research, but instead mad that he is not listening to his claims about smoking having a benefit to his mental illness.

To be fair, it is very easy to dismiss what crazy people believe.

Re: Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

#122

Post by agentgt »

anigbrowl wrote: post #48

“This defines a completely novel strategy for medication development,” says lead author As someone with schizoaffective problems and raging ADHD, I find quotes like this acutely annoying. I've told every psychiatrist I'eve ever dealt with about the experiential costs/benefits of smoking (and consuming various other recreational drugs). They all nod sagely and say things like 'but smoking is bad' (no shit Sherlock!) w…

I have never been addicted to cigarettes and do not smoke but I do chew nicotine gum all the time for ADD (and yes there is a difference between ADHD and ADD).

I took me a while to figure out that nicotine is a superior stimulant over caffeine, adderall, ritalin and even chocolate extract (albeit chocolate was surprisingly effective).

The big plus with nicotine is that it doesn't have the after downer that the above stimulants have. Particularly adderall.. it honestly shocks me that I was given that drug as a child.

The jury still seems to be out on how dangerous nicotine is (the actual substance and not all the crap you get with tobacco products).

Re: Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

#123

Post by jacobolus »

PerryCox wrote: post #108
beambot wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your psychiatrist runs a practice and you're mad that they are practicing rather than researching ? That seems like an unrealistic expectation. If your doc was doing more research, then they probably wouldn't be practicing as much. It's like asking you to be a professional developer and do cutting edge CS research -- that's pretty rare. Tracking nicotine vs your mood strikes me as being "research" -- especially since…

I don't believe he is mad that his psychiatrist is not doing academic research, but instead mad that he is not listening to his claims about smoking having a benefit to his mental illness.

Not just psychiatrists. A significant proportion of M.D.s of all subspecialties are surprisingly uncurious and unwilling to listen seriously to patient symptom reports (even detailed reports of careful observations), whenever anything doesn’t match their narrow past experience. Instead of admitting they just haven’t seen anything similar before or suggesting ways to follow up with research literature etc., doctors often second-guess their patients’ reports in such cases and chase people away with speculation about hypochondria, etc.

I think medical school / career pressures do a good job of selecting strongly for folks good at following instructions and memorizing information provided by some authority at the expense of curiosity or critical thinking. This works great when someone goes in for a common condition and needs routine treatment, but can get pretty frustrating for patients suffering from anything atypical.

Or maybe I’m being unfair and this is just true of people in general.

Re: Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

#124

Post by joyeuse6701 »

anigbrowl wrote: post #48

“This defines a completely novel strategy for medication development,” says lead author As someone with schizoaffective problems and raging ADHD, I find quotes like this acutely annoying. I've told every psychiatrist I'eve ever dealt with about the experiential costs/benefits of smoking (and consuming various other recreational drugs). They all nod sagely and say things like 'but smoking is bad' (no shit Sherlock!) w…

Perhaps there are others in more need of his services than you. No need to call him an asshole, you aren't entitled to his services.

Re: Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

#125

Post by shermanyo »

seizethecheese wrote: post #32
derefr wrote: post #25

This makes me wonder what the modern world would look like if all "recreational drugs" suddenly disappeared, and so all the people who were implicitly, unknowingly self-medicating for a mental illness by using recreational drugs, suddenly weren't. What percentage of the population would go from seemingly neurotypical, to perceivably mentally ill? How much more common would conditions like schizophrenia be?

Alcohol: Anxiety disorders Marijuana: OCD Caffeine: ADHD

I think people are dismissing / overlooking your comment, but I've seen exactly this time and time again.

Anecdotally: I developed a drinking problem in my first few years of work, which I used to deal with anxiety and depression as I failed to find my feet and seriously questioned dropping out of software development.

I was eventually diagnosed with ADHD (inattentive) and through treatment, experienced a complete life change.

I stopped drinking excessively, then almost completely. I never tried to address the problem directly, I just lost any desire to drink outside of a normal social context. Even then, I rarely have more than 2-3 in a night.

I'm on stimulants for treatment, but take breaks some weekends and over holidays. I've always been a coffee drinker, but now I'm conscious of how much I'm drawn to it for the positive effects I see.

I honestly think it was the only reason I got through university (before diagnosed / treated for ADHD). I was using caffeine in the same way I use my current medication, to fill the same gaps.

I don't want to comment on the effectiveness of self medication, or anything diagnosis related. I just find it interesting the correlation between certain personality types and the class of drugs they seem to be drawn to. I think it offers a lot of psychological insight we haven't really looked at in detail.

Re: Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

#126

Post by SparkyMcUnicorn »

andy_ppp wrote: post #117
SparkyMcUnicorn wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to chime in. If you have concerns because you've heard that "vaping is bad", do some research into it. While there are billboards and other advertisements against vaping in the USA, Public Health England says that vaping is at least 95% healthier [1]. http://notblowingsmoke.org/ [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-around-95-le...

I actually don't think vaping is good because it allows the nicotine user to never realise it's possible to get over their addiction instead requiring constant replacement of smoking. This is not needed if they accept fully the difficulty of giving up but realise that every exertion of will power promotes their escape and weakens smokings hold on the user.

Counter arguments.

1. Many people that vape use it as a method to wean themselves off of nicotine completely. Since you can adjust the level of nicotine, they just use less and less until they aren't having any at all. Out of people I know that vape 3 have quit vaping/nicotine completely after a year or two, 1 vapes with no nicotine, and I vape with 1mg/ml of nicotine.

2. If someone has tried to quit smoking but keeps falling back, isn't vaping a better alternative? If someone is going to be addicted to nicotine, isn't it better that they vape rather than smoke since the harm is drastically less?

Re: Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

#127

Post by tomcam »

zeta0134 wrote: post #82
tomcam wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not parent, but nothing I have tried improves my sleep. Baseline is just bad. Exercise, meditation, alarms – nothing works. The only thing that raised the baseline was quitting caffeine.

The thing that finally worked for me was blackout curtains in my room. I didn't realize just how much the incoming light from outside my window was affecting my sleep. In pitch black darkness, I'm out like a light and have the deepest sleep imaginable. (It's so effective that I have to set an alarm to wake myself up, otherwise I'll stay asleep for 10-12 hours) I'm able to replicate this somewhat using a sleeping mask…

Hey, thanks. After bloviating that I've tried everything--you made me a liar. I do need to try that.

Re: Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

#128

Post by BatFastard »

nickysielicki wrote: post #118
77pt77 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Of all the medical professionals I've ever dealt with, psychiatrists are the laziest and least imaginative. Also the ones with the most power over patients. A dangerous combination in my opinion.

Even more dangerous when you consider this paper. [1] In particular, see point two, "Psychology is less politically diverse than ever". Academic psychology seems to lean Democrat by a ratio of 14:1! Fourteen to one! That kind of bias is ridiculous when you consider the power they have over their patients and the politically-infused repercussions of their diagnosis. Case in point: gun ownership. [1]: http://heterodoxa…

Psychologists have different training then psychiatrist do, a psychiatric degree requires an MD first. Generally psychologists do not prescribe medicine. So this paper does not really apply to psychiatrists. Also more highly educated people vote as democrats more often.

Re: Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

#129

Post by DanielleMolloy »

zeta0134 wrote: post #82
tomcam wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not parent, but nothing I have tried improves my sleep. Baseline is just bad. Exercise, meditation, alarms – nothing works. The only thing that raised the baseline was quitting caffeine.

The thing that finally worked for me was blackout curtains in my room. I didn't realize just how much the incoming light from outside my window was affecting my sleep. In pitch black darkness, I'm out like a light and have the deepest sleep imaginable. (It's so effective that I have to set an alarm to wake myself up, otherwise I'll stay asleep for 10-12 hours) I'm able to replicate this somewhat using a sleeping mask…

I grew up in a house that had the massively thick kind of exterior blinds everywhere, the ones that really make your room pitch dark ("Außenrolläden" in my native language). After moving out from my parent's house I have lived in several places, but often in older buildings without decent blinds. I didn't realize the influence this may have had on me before a temporary room mate pointed out that the room is far too bright for her at night.

Sleeping masks did not help me too, so I got thick blackout curtains for my next flat, and the first effect was that I suddenly had vivid dreams again regularly, which I only had occasionally in the years before. I am considerably more alert during the day now. In retrospect I indeed must have felt constantly slightly tired for years during the day, after sleeping in such rooms.

It is possibly dangerous to sleep in even slightly light rooms. The lowered levels of melatonin are correlated to several bad illnesses (just look it up). I push my SO who still sleeps in a too bright apartment to regularly wear his sleeping mask at least, but people who have never slept in really dark rooms for prolonged time may simply not have the experience points here.

Re: Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key to Schizophrenia

#130

Post by BatFastard »

tcj_phx wrote: post #95
anigbrowl wrote: post #48

“This defines a completely novel strategy for medication development,” says lead author As someone with schizoaffective problems and raging ADHD, I find quotes like this acutely annoying. I've told every psychiatrist I'eve ever dealt with about the experiential costs/benefits of smoking (and consuming various other recreational drugs). They all nod sagely and say things like 'but smoking is bad' (no shit Sherlock!) w…

> Edited to add that I quit tobacco ~7 years ago using chantix, which I totally recommend. Unfortunately my mental ilnesses have become harder to deal with over the same period. I learned from someone here (about 4 months ago [1]) that nicotine is not so addictive by itself. It is the combination of MAOI-like chemicals in tobacco that makes it hard for smokers to quit. MAOI's were the "first generation" anti-depressa…

>but caused high blood pressure when combined with fine aged cheese.

Are you serious about this?

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