Warburton D M
Rev Environ Health. 1985;5(4):343-90.
In spite of the considerable publicity about the health hazards of smoking, people continue to smoke. Smokers must consider that the risks are outweighed by smoking's benefits. This highly selected review of nicotine and the smoking habit reveals that nicotine does have positive effects. Nicotine releases hormones which reduce fatigue and acts on the central nervous system to produce more efficient processing of information. The increased efficiency produced by nicotine enables both smokers and nonsmokers to perform better in work situations. In addition, nicotine has a sedative action reducing anxiety and anger. Smokers titrate their nicotine intake so that they obtain the appropriate dose of nicotine for these kind of effects. The pharmacokinetic properties of nicotine make smoking doses remarkably safe for normal healthy adults in comparison with other available stimulant and sedative substances and so there is a high benefit-risk ratio for nicotine versus other comparable agents. If the other components of cigarette smoke could be made less active, the unique pharmacological properties of nicotine make it an ideal substance for self-medication by inhalation.
尽管吸烟对健康危害的宣传力度很大，但人们仍继续吸烟。吸烟者必定认为吸烟的益处大于风险。这篇对尼古丁及吸烟习惯的精心挑选的综述表明，尼古丁确实有积极作用。尼古丁会释放减轻疲劳的激素，并作用于中枢神经系统，使信息处理更高效。尼古丁产生的效率提升能让吸烟者和非吸烟者在工作场景中表现得更好。此外，尼古丁有镇静作用，可减轻焦虑和愤怒。吸烟者会调节尼古丁摄入量，以便获得产生这类效果所需的适量尼古丁。与其他现有的兴奋剂和镇静剂相比，尼古丁的药代动力学特性使吸烟剂量对正常健康成年人而言非常安全，因此与其他可比药物相比，尼古丁的效益风险比很高。如果香烟烟雾的其他成分活性能降低，尼古丁独特的药理特性使其成为通过吸入进行自我治疗的理想物质。
