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Smoke effects

HEALTH Nicotine acts differently on men and women

Photo: Bijoy Ghosh

NICOTINE ACTS on male and female brains differently, a new study has concluded. But oddly enough, it found that one of the drug's major effects was to make women's brains work more like men's.

To look for a biological basis for the differences, researchers gave a group of 119 smokers and non-smokers tests while their brain activity was being monitored. With the placebo patch, women generated more brain activity than men, particularly in areas that govern attention, mood, short-term memory and task organisation.

When the subjects were given nicotine, these differences diminished greatly: brain metabolism decreased among women and increased in men.

The lead researcher, Stephen G. Potkin of the University of California, Irvine, said the findings suggested a biological difference in the way nicotine is metabolised.

That means that differences in smoking patterns and in quitting may have a biological basis and not be just "a consequence of different ways of inhaling or a different number of cigarettes smoked," he said.

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