NICOTINE is just as effective as the drug Ritalin at treating some symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a small study suggests. That may be why children with ADHD are twice as likely to smoke as others – they could be self-medicating.
Doctors won’t be prescribing nicotine patches, though, as this would probably lead to addiction, says Alexandra Potter, the clinical psychologist at the University of Vermont who led the work. But drug companies are developing drugs that target nicotine receptors in the brain without the harmful effects of nicotine.
Potter’s team studied eight non-smoking teenagers with ADHD. They found that nicotine was just as effective as…
