People in their late teens and early 20s may be more sensitive to nicotine and more susceptible to nicotine addiction than middle aged adults, according to a new study in mice from researchers in the Penn State Department of Biobehavioral Health. The results provide evidence that the effects of drugs on the body - both medication and misused substances - change over the lifespan in ways that clinicians and researchers need to consider when developing and prescribing treatments, the researchers said.
Doctoral student Carlos Novoa and his adviser, Thomas Gould, Jean Phillips Shibley Professor of Biobehavioral Health and head of the department, led the study. The researchers demonstrated that nicotine lowers the body temperature of young-adult mice more quickly and reduces their movement more significantly than middle-aged mice. These results indicate how the effects of nicotine change as people age, according to the research team.
Results of the study were published in Behavioral Pharmacology.
