Science: why is quitting smoking always a failure? It's your brain!

October 14, 2019 / BIOON / -- more than 90% of smokers failed to quit smoking The reason may be hidden in their brains Many people who are trying to quit often turn to quit smoking drugs, including the nicoderm CQ or Chantix In a recently published study, Jessica Flannery, a Ph.D student in psychology at the International University of Florida (FIU), and a team of scientists found that part of the brain is involved in the formation of smoking desire and nicotine withdrawal symptoms, while a completely independent part of the brain is related to the severity of actual addiction However, these drugs are only for one of them Matthew Sutherland, a cognitive neuroscientist at the FIU and senior author of the study, said: "this study shows that current drugs can only treat symptoms, not the core of drug abuse disease, that is, a person's addiction level To improve the rate of quitting smoking, we need not only a single drug, but a variety of drugs, each of which is aimed at different brain processes "Image source: Science Advanced scientists use smoking cessation drugs to understand the changes in brain activity between smokers and non-smokers Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers scanned the brain and found that when participants performed different parts of a task, two areas of the brain showed activity Scientists have observed that the brain processes associated with addiction are related to the activity of the striatum in the brain At the same time, smokers' desire for cigarettes is related to the change of activity of brain pineal rein The World Health Organization estimates that there are 1.1 billion smokers in the world More than half of people will die from smoking related diseases According to the U.S Centers for disease control, 68 percent of smokers want to quit smoking, half of whom try to quit every year But nicotine in tobacco products is addictive, and only 7% of people can quit smoking successfully The new study links specific brain processes to nicotine use, providing a roadmap for developing new interventions or improving existing ones "With the widespread use of e-cigarettes and e-cigarettes among today's young people, a new generation of nicotine addicts is likely to follow this trend, so progress in improving abstinence management and / or preventing relapses is particularly important," Flannery said "Reference: Jessica S Flannery et al Habenular and strict activity during performance feedback are differentially linked with state like and trait like aspects of tobacco use disorder, science advanced (2019) Doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax2084