1. ¹Department of Psychiatry, New York University Medical School, Hewlett, NY, USA
2. ²Manhattan Psychiatric Center, Wards Island, NY, USA
3. ³Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA
4. ⁴Queens College, Queens, NY, USA
5. ⁵Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA, USA

Correspondence: Dr RC Smith, NYU Medical School, Department of Psychiatry, c/o PO Box 316, Hewlett, NY, USA. Tel: +1 646 672 6910, 516 569 1810, Fax: +1 516 569 1755; E-mail: robert.smith@med.nyu.edu

⁶Now at Department of Psychiatry, Lincoln Hospital, Bronx, NY, USA

Received 17 February 2005; Revised 13 June 2005; Accepted 20 July 2005; Published online 14 September 2005.

Abstract

Schizophrenics have among the highest rates of cigarette smoking. Some studies indicate that cigarette smoking or nicotine may ameliorate some of the cognitive or theoretically related neurophysiological deficits seen in schizophrenic patients. This study investigated the effects of nicotine nasal spray on measures of attention, verbal memory, and visual–spatial memory in schizophrenic patients who were chronic smokers, using a double-blind placebo-controlled pre–post experimental design. Compared to placebo, active nicotine spray significantly decreased reaction time on the Conner's CPT and improved scores on a measure purported to reflect spatial working memory on a dot task. There were trends for the increased number of hits and decreased number of errors in pre–post comparisons on the CPT task in the active nicotine session. There were no effects of active nicotine nasal spray on verbal memory. Our results suggest that nicotine may modestly enhance attention and spatial working memory in schizophrenic patients who are cigarette smokers and have been abstinent overnight.