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Smoking causes long-term but reversible effects to the brain [Source: Irish Times] 

Does smoking change the human brain? Cigarette smoking causes long-lasting but reversible effects to the human brain, the conference was told.

Dr Nora Volkow, of the National Institute of Drug Abuse at the US National Institute of Health, described research which showed that the concentration of an enzyme in parts of the brain was much reduced in smokers. . . .

Dr Jack Henningfield, of Johns Hopkins Medical School in the US, said that after the brain has changed, smokers need nicotine to maintain normal function. He described how US tobacco companies had worked to improve the design of cigarettes from an old-fashioned "scatter gun" approach to a design that ensured all the molecules of tar and nicotine hit their target in the lung.

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