Abundant evidence indicates that the neuronal
nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) system is integral to regulation of attentional processes and is dysregulated in
schizophrenia.
Nicotinic agonists may have potential for the treatment of
cognitive impairment in this disease. This study investigated the effects of transdermal
nicotine on attention in individuals with
schizophrenia (n=28) and healthy controls (n=32). All participants were nonsmokers in order to eliminate confounding effects of
nicotine withdrawal and reinstatement that may occur in the study of smokers. Subjects received 14 mg transdermal
nicotine and identical placebo in a randomized, placebo-controlled, crossover design. A cognitive battery was conducted before and 3 h after each patch application. The primary outcome measure was performance on the Continuous Performance Test Identical Pairs (
CPT-IP) Version.
Nicotine significantly improved the performance on the
CPT-IP as measured by hit reaction time, hit reaction time standard deviation and random errors in both groups. In addition,
nicotine reduced commission errors on the
CPT-IP and improved the performance on a Card Stroop task to a greater extent in those with
schizophrenia vs controls. In summary,
nicotine improved attentional performance in both groups and was associated with greater improvements in inhibition of impulsive responses in subjects with
schizophrenia. These results confirm previous findings that a single dose of
nicotine improves attention and suggest that
nicotine may specifically improve response inhibition in nonsmokers with
schizophrenia.