ArticleCognitive and behavioral neurology : official journal of the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology2012
Smoking cessation after brain damage does not lead to increased depression: implications for understanding the psychiatric complications of varenicline.
Article in Cognitive and behavioral neurology : official journal of the Society for Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Smoking cessation for improving mental health.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- Treating addiction with deep brain stimulation: Ethical and legal considerations.The International journal on drug policy · 2023Review
- Basal ganglia plus insula damage yields stronger disruption of smoking addiction than basal ganglia damage alone.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThere are concerns that varenicline (Chantix/Champix), a prescription medication used to treat smoking addiction, might cause serious neuropsychiatric side effects, such as depression, self-injurious behavior, and suicide. However, the cause of depression and related symptoms in persons who quit smoking after taking varenicline remains uncertain, because smoking cessation itself can cause such symptoms.
methodWe studied 70 patients with brain lesions: 32 had stopped smoking after suffering their lesion (Quitters) and 38 had kept smoking (Non-Quitters).
resultsThere was no indication of increased depression in the Quitters compared with the Non-Quitters. The 2 groups, which were statistically indistinguishable on demographic and neuropsychological variables, showed the same rates and levels of severity of depression and related symptoms. Moreover, in a subgroup of 16 Quitters who had stopped smoking immediately after their neurological injury in the context of losing their craving to smoke, rates of depression-related symptoms were no higher than in the other Quitters and the Non-Quitters.
conclusionsSmoking cessation did not lead to elevated levels of depression in patients with brain lesions, suggesting that psychiatric complications (particularly depression) observed after varenicline use are caused by the medication rather than the smoking cessation itself.
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Registered trials
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