Project Summary

Josette G. Harris, Ph.D. (Independent Investigator 2002) of University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, will study the use of nicotine in ameliorating cognitive deficits in smoking versus non smoking schizophrenics by replicating findings of nicotine effects on attention utilizing additional measures of sustained attention; demonstrating that verbal memory is not affected by administration of nicotine; and by determining whether nicotine has an effect on working memory; and assessing whether chronic smoking blocks acute effects of nicotine.  Data from both human and animal studies suggest that nicotinic cholinergic systems in the brain have a role in several cognitive processes, and deficits in the same types of cognitive functions, ranging from attention to short term learning, have been identified in patients with schizophrenia.  Amelioration of neurocognitive dysfunction is becoming an important focus of clinical treatment development because deficits are a better predictor of functional outcome in patients with schizophrenia than are other symptoms of the disease. 

Program Area: SCHIZOPHRENIA/PSYCHOTIC DISORDERS\Schizophrenia\Pharmacology

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