Nicotine and Sensorimotor Replacement for Smoking in Smokers With Schizophrenia

This study used a mixed between- and within-subjects design to investigate the separate and combined effects of sensorimotor replacement for smoking (very low nicotine content \[VLNC\] cigarettes vs. no cigarettes) and transdermal nicotine replacement (42 mg nicotine \[NIC\] vs. placebo \[PLA\] patches) in smokers with schizophrenia and control smokers without psychiatric illness. Each session contained a 5-h controlled administration period in which participants underwent the following conditions, in counterbalanced order: VLNC + NIC, VLNC + PLA, no cigarettes + NIC, no cigarettes + PLA, Usual Brand cigarettes + no patches. Next, participants completed measures of cigarette craving, nicotine withdrawal, smoking habit withdrawal, cigarette subjective effects, psychiatric symptoms and cognitive task performance followed by a 90-min period of ad libitum usual-brand smoking.