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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Spectral Confocal Imaging of Fluorescently tagged Nicotinic Receptors in Knock-in Mice with Chronic Nicotine Administration
Published on: February 10, 2012
Nicotine dependence and symptoms in schizophrenia: naturalistic study of complex interactions
M Carmen Aguilar1, Manuel Gurpegui, Francisco J Diaz
1Department of Psychiatry and Institute of Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Grenada, Av. Madrid 11, E-18071 Granada, Spain.
Background:
Smoking may have a beneficial effect on either schizophrenic symptoms or antipsychotic side-effects, but studies are hampered by the lack of control of confounding factors.
Aims:
To explore the self-medication hypothesis in a large sample of stable out-patients with schizophrenia.
Method:
Symptoms, assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and number of hospitalisations were compared in 250 out-patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia classified into three categories: highly dependent smokers, mildly dependent smokers and non-smokers. Log-linear analysis was used to control for potential confounding and interacting variables.
Results:
High PANSS total scores and positive symptoms were less frequent in mildly dependent smokers than in non-smokers or highly dependent smokers. The highly dependent smokers had the worst outcome.
Conclusions:
The data do not generally support the self-medication hypothesis but rather suggest a complex interaction between nicotine dependence and nicotine dependence and schizophrenic symptoms.
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