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Updated: Jul 9, 2026

Creating Dynamic Images of Short-lived Dopamine Fluctuations with lp-ntPET: Dopamine Movies of Cigarette Smoking
Published on: August 6, 2013
Monoamine oxidase inhibition for tobacco pharmacotherapy
1Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. tony.george@utoronto.ca
Abstract:
Tobacco addiction is the most significant preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the Western world, with >430,000 deaths annually from tobacco-related diseases being reported in the United States. Although effective treatments are available for cessation of smoking (e.g., nicotine replacement therapies, sustained-release bupropion and varenicline), they do not work for all smokers. Therefore the development of more effective medications for treating tobacco dependence, based on novel mechanisms, is a high priority. This article reviews the links between smoking and monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibition, which could lead to the development of novel pharmacotherapies to treat tobacco dependence.
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