Mecamylamine moderates cue-induced emotional responses in smokers

The nicotinic antagonist, mecamylamine, has been shown to reduce cue-elicited cocaine craving and to aid in smoking cessation. In a within-subjects design, 16 dependent smokers received mecamylamine (10 mg) or placebo capsules on two different days. Subjects imagined smoking urge and non-urge scenarios after smoking their usual brand vs. denicotinized cigarettes. Smoking usual-brand cigarettes produced greater positive effects and mecamylamine blocked heart rate (HR) boost and cigarette sensory impact. Mecamylamine also resulted in greater craving and less calmness, regardless of cigarette smoked. Urge script imagination in the mecamylamine+denicotinized condition resulted in calmness similar to usual-brand conditions and higher than the placebo+denicotinized condition. A similar trend was observed for negative affect. These results suggest that mecamylamine can moderate smoking cue-induced emotional responses in smokers.