Mayo Clinic Study Questions Theory About Nicotine Addiction Treatment

Thursday, July 06, 2000

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John Murphy
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For Immediate Release

Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center researchers have found that the anti-Parkinsonism drug carbidopa/levodopa - also called L-dopa - is not effective in treating nicotine dependence, as was once thought. The study was published in the current issue of Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

Previous research has shown that nicotine stimulates the brain to produce dopamine, a chemical that plays a role in sustaining drug addiction. Investigators theorized that taking L-dopa, which is converted to dopamine in the brain, would help people stop smoking.

The Mayo Clinic study did not confirm this theory. The Mayo Clinic study compared a group of smokers who were given L-dopa to help them stop smoking with a group that received a placebo. No significant difference in smoking abstinence rates was observed in the two groups. At the end of L-dopa treatment, 20 percent of the L-dopa group had achieved smoking abstinence, while 19 percent of the placebo group achieved abstinence.

"This study leads us to believe that nicotine addiction is a more complex process than we have previously believed," says Richard D. Hurt, M.D., director of the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center and lead investigator of the study. "The production of dopamine certainly plays a part in nicotine addiction, but it is not the only mechanism at work. We will continue to study new medications in the hope of helping more people stop smoking." ###

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