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Re:Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key ... by abandonliberty on Monday January 23, 2017 @05:48PM (#13466908)
The effect on the underlying conditions are relatively small - otherwise we would have noticed that nicotine is a cure for schizophrenia.

So the addicted will get slightly improvements from their drug. Some of them enough to reduce their chance of a clinical diagnosis.

Most people won't be close enough to (the very blurry) line to swap between diagnosed and subclinical.

Re:Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key ... by anigbrowl on Monday January 23, 2017 @06:15PM (#13467140)
Well we might have noticed it a lot earlier if psychiatrists did a better job of listening to their patients instead of scribbling a prescription and telling them to come back in 3 months. My last psychiatrist is regarded as one of the leading researchers in his sub-specialty and did very little to earn the $500/hour I was paying him.

Your comment assumes the psychiatric profession is generally meretricious and evidence-driven. Many psychiatric patients' experience suggests otherwise.

Re:Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key ... by abandonliberty on Tuesday January 24, 2017 @01:37AM (#13469276)
Sorry to hear about your psychiatrist. I suspect this falls into the university trap: "Great" professors are in fact great researchers; there's comparatively little reward in being a great teacher (or listener to your patients).

Hmm perhaps also because smoking behavior probably doesn't change much without accompanying lifestyle changes and confounding factors.

Still we didn't have schizophrenics who happened to pick up smoking and were completely cured, right? (right?) So the magnitude of effect is helpful, but not curative.

Re:Nicotine Normalizes Brain Activity Deficits That Are Key ... by wryun on Tuesday January 24, 2017 @01:36AM (#13469274)
You might want to look up the meaning of meretricious :)