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New Insight on How Fast Nicotine Peaks in the Brain 

Nicotine takes much longer than previously thought to reach peak levels in the brains of cigarette smokers, according to new research conducted at Duke University Medical Center.

Traditionally, scientists thought nicotine inhaled in a puff of cigarette smoke took a mere seven seconds to be taken up by the brain, and that each puff produced a spike of nicotine. Using PET imaging, Duke investigators illustrate, for the first time, that cigarette smokers actually experience a steady rise of brain nicotine levels during the course of smoking a whole cigarette.

The findings, scheduled to appear online in the Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) the week of March 8, could lead to more effective treatments for smoking addiction.

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