Sunday, September 07, 2008

Nicotine as Good as Ritalin

Tomorrow I start with Ritalin in order to reduce the effects of ADD on my ability to concentrate. I was browsing the net on what to be careful with in combination with Ritalin and found this article. Turns out I've been self medicating for quite some years now...
NEW ORLEANS, LA -- November 13, 2003 -- Nicotine serves as well as the commonly prescribed drug methylphenidate (Ritalin) on measures of motor inhibition taken in teens with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). [...] Nicotine was delivered by a skin patch. Comparison was to oral Ritalin and a placebo for both medications. The teens served as their own controls. Reaction times significantly improved on 2 standard laboratory tasks that measure inhibition of responding no matter which drug was used. Tests included the Stroop Task, with nicotine significantly decreasing the so-called Stroop effect (P < .05). Nicotine worked better on this task than did Ritalin.

2 comments:

annom said...

What is "motor inhibition"? Isn't that the part you don't need?

dekus said...

I tried googling it, but couldn't find a satisfying answer. So to be honest I don't really know what has been tested here, could be that it's the hyperactivity that was treated...