Addiction clues could help smokers kick habit
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By University of Nebraska-Lincoln
If you’ve ever tried to quit smoking, understanding how you got hooked in the first place probably seems irrelevant. But University of Nebraska-Lincoln psychologist Rick Bevins believes those first experiences play a key role in nicotine’s grip on you today, and understanding that role will eventually help you quit.
With a $534,413 two-year grant from the National Institutes of Health funded by the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), Bevins is expanding his research on how the learning process affects nicotine’s addictive quality.
“We hypothesize that if you have a positive learning history, that drug is going to be more addictive,” he said. “The nicotine itself has literally changed its impact on the body and will have a more tenacious effect on the nervous system.”
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