Leonard S, Adler L E, Benhammou K, Berger R, Breese C R, Drebing C, Gault J, Lee M J, Logel J, Olincy A, Ross R G, Stevens K, Sullivan B, Vianzon R, Virnich D E, Waldo M, Walton K, Freedman R
Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Box C-268-71, 4200 East 9th Avenue, Denver, CO 80262, USA.
Pharmacol Biochem Behav. 2001 Dec;70(4):561-70. doi: 10.1016/s0091-3057(01)00677-3.
Patients with mental illness have a higher incidence of smoking than the general population and are the major consumers of tobacco products. This population includes subjects with schizophrenia, manic depression, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), attention-deficit disorder (ADD), and several other less common diseases. Smoking cessation treatment in this group of patients is difficult, often leading to profound depression. Several recent findings suggest that increased smoking in the mentally ill may have an underlying biological etiology. The mental illness schizophrenia has been most thoroughly studied in this regard. Nicotine administration normalizes several sensory-processing deficits seen in this disease. Animal models of sensory deficits have been used to identify specific nicotinic receptor subunits that are involved in these brain pathways, indicating that the alpha 7 nicotinic receptor subunit may play a role. Genetic linkage in schizophrenic families also supports a role for the alpha 7 subunit with linkage at the alpha 7 locus on chromosome 15. Bipolar disorder has some phenotypes in common with schizophrenia and also exhibits genetic linkage to the alpha 7 locus, suggesting that these two disorders may share a gene defect. The alpha 7 receptor is decreased in expression in schizophrenia. [(3)H]-Nicotine binding studies in postmortem brain indicate that high-affinity nicotinic receptors may also be affected in schizophrenia.
患有精神疾病的患者吸烟率高于普通人群，并且是烟草产品的主要消费者。这一人群包括患有精神分裂症、躁郁症、抑郁症、创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）、注意力缺陷障碍（ADD）以及其他几种不太常见疾病的患者。对这组患者进行戒烟治疗很困难，常常会导致严重的抑郁。最近的一些研究结果表明，精神病患者吸烟增多可能有潜在的生物学病因。在这方面，对精神疾病精神分裂症的研究最为深入。在这方面，尼古丁给药可使该疾病中出现的几种感觉处理缺陷恢复正常。感觉缺陷的动物模型已被用于识别参与这些脑通路的特定烟碱受体亚基，这表明α7烟碱受体亚基可能起作用。精神分裂症家族中的基因连锁也支持α7亚基在15号染色体上的α7位点起作用。双相情感障碍与精神分裂症有一些共同的表型，并且也表现出与α7位点的基因连锁，这表明这两种疾病可能存在共同的基因缺陷。精神分裂症中α7受体的表达降低。对死后大脑进行的[³H] - 尼古丁结合研究表明，高亲和力烟碱受体在精神分裂症中也可能受到影响。
