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Just came across this article. Nicotine patch promising for Parkinson`s Source: Reuters 6/8/98 6:27:00 PM ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- TORONTO, Jun 08 (Reuters) -- A nicotine patch may improve symptoms in patients with Parkinson`s disease, a preliminary study suggests. While it is too early to tell patients to wear such a patch, nine people with early to moderate Parkinson`s disease showed improvement in both motor function and cognition -- a catchall term that includes learning and memory -- after being given nicotine by intravenous injection and then wearing a nicotine patch for 2 weeks. ``These improvements appeared to be sustained for up to 1 month after the drug had been discontinued,`` reported Dr. Paul Newhouse of the University of Vermont last week at the 151st annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association. Parkinson`s disease is characterized by progressive degeneration of the dopamine producing-cells in the brain, resulting in tremor, difficulty walking, and eventually paralysis. ``Preliminary analysis shows improvements after acute nicotine administration in several areas of cognitive performance,`` Newhouse noted. These included improvement in reaction time and central processing speed. After chronic use of nicotine, the researchers also saw improvements in tests of motor function -- the ability to move. Some studies have shown that smokers are significantly less likely to develop Parkinson`s disease than nonsmokers. It`s also been shown that cells in laboratory culture dishes release dopamine in the presence of that nicotine, Newhouse said. ``Whether nicotine can do this on a chronic basis is questionable,`` he said, ``but these results are intriguing and we think that nicotinic stimulation may hold promise for improving both cognitive and motor aspects of Parkinson`s disease Nancy B cg for Don 64/14+