Scientists discover cause of smoking addiction – and how to cure it

Joe Pinkstone
Tue, 15 August 2023 a

Smoking is the single biggest cause of cancer in the UK

A cure for smoking could be on the horizon after scientists discovered how the brain becomes addicted to nicotine.

Smoking is the single biggest cause of cancer in the UK and is responsible for more than a quarter of all cancer deaths.

University of Cambridge scientists studied brain scans of more than 800 people taken when they were 14, 19 and 24 and analysed any impact smoking had.

They found that smokers were more likely to have a smaller region in the frontal lobe called the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

This part of the brain is linked to rule breaking and the study suggests people with a naturally smaller lobe are likely more inclined to break rules and be a renegade.

However, data also show that the right-hand side of the same brain region is also affected by smoking. This section is involved in controlling willpower and triggering feelings of pleasure and the scans reveal it shrinks in smokers.

“There was a reduction in brain grey matter volume in the left ventromedial prefrontal cortex which likely causes impulsive behaviour and rule breaking that leads to the initiation of cigarette smoking,” study author Prof Barbara Sahakian, from the University of Cambridge, told The Telegraph.

“Cigarette smoking leads to reductions in brain grey matter volume in the right ventromedial prefrontal cortex, which is associated with sensation seeking and pleasurable experiences that reinforces and maintains future cigarette smoking. This eventually leads to addiction.”

The study, published in Nature Communications, looked at any brain changes that happened after people started smoking and found nicotine was associated with significant changes.

Vaping addiction

Although the study only looked at smoking of cigarettes the scientists think the changes in the brain could also be caused by vaping.

“The nicotine effect we found with smoking cigarettes may also apply to e-cigarettes,” Prof Sahakian told The Telegraph. “Both e-cigarettes and regular cigarettes contain nicotine. Nicotine is highly addictive. There is an increasing concern about adolescents becoming addicted to vaping.”

The scientists believe they have discovered a “neurological mechanism” which underpins how people start smoking and what makes it so hard to quit.

The team says that now they know where, and how, nicotine is warping the mind then it could be possible to treat addiction.

Some therapies, such as psychotropic drugs, could stop the brain shrinking or keep the frontal lobe working normally, they write in their paper.

Another option could be using brain-zapping technology to target this region of the brain as a “potential treatment for addiction”, the team added.