Project Summary

Tony P. George, M.D (Independent Investigator 2005) of Connecticut Mental Health Center/Yale University, aims to study whether drugs that stimulate the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor, nACHR, will lead to cognitive improvements in patients with schizophrenia. Several lines of evidence suggest that the nicotinic receptor system is dysregulated in schizophrenia and the heavy smoking seen in schizophrenic patients may be related to patients medicating themselves to modulate that system. Dr. George has evidence that cigarette smoking selectively improves cognitive deficits in schizophrenia compared with control subjects, that such enhancement is confined to measures of spatial working memory, sustained attention and pre-pulse inhibition, and that these effects are dependent on central nAChR stimulation. In the study, he will give patients Reminyl, a modulator of nAChR, approved for Alzheimer’s disease. He will study the effect of the drug on cognitive defects of schizophrenics who smoke and don’t smoke. Findings may suggest further studies with these kinds of drugs in the care of schizophrenics.

Program Area: SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS\Schizophrenia\Nicotine

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