UC, the Patch, and Addiction?

I know there have been a couple of posts in the past where people have talked about the efficacy of nicotine patch treatments for UC and their experiences with them, and I have read pretty much all of the primary literature out there on the subject, but there is one thing that I feel doesnt get talked about enough that I am curious about.

As a non-smoker, I am extremely worried about nicotine addiction and the potentially permanent nature of it. I have to admit my knowledge of smoking and nicotine is relatively little since it has never concerned me, so I wanted to know what peoples thoughts and experiences were regarding developing addiction using 14mg patches over a 6 week period. I know in the past it was thought that it took a long time (months to years) to develop the physiological changes associated with nicotine addiction, but some evidence has suggested addiction can start very quickly. So what are peoples experiences with this?

Thanks for the advice! : )

Agree with the above.. as a previous social smoker, and now testing out Nicotine "therapy". It seems hard to get addicted to patches, sprays, etc. there's a possibility with ecigs I imagine. Though, as mentioned above, a major part of the addiction lies in the other aspects of smoking, rather than the nicotine itself- such as the social side, taking a break from work, the feeling of lighting up and inhaline the smoke and the cigarette itself, attachment to brands etc. etc.
IMO coffee & caffeine is far more addictive as a stimulant than nicotine.

ya, I think I'd rather be addicted to well, and not forced into sickness -

Nicotine is actually a very useful drug for some conditions. Someone very close to me has schizophrenia, and it helps him a lot. I can't cite specific papers but if you're interested, they are all over.

The association with tobacco smoking makes it seem *bad* *naughty* *immoral* ...much like MMJ in my opinion. Many people might be helped by the active naturally occurring compounds in these two plants, but society looks upon anything associated with them as being bad. Yet, we will often happily take whatever manmade chemical Big Pharma tells us to take.

Nic therapy would be inexpensive and easy to obtain. The only side effects I can name is slight increase in BP and heart rate. You would be very unlikely to reach toxic doses using OTC patches.

Is it the psychological "need" that you fear? What would happen if you discontinued Remicade? Your symptoms might return...thus creating a physiologic "need" for it.

To be honest, if you've already had to go on Remicade, I think nic would be the lesser of the two "necessary evils".

If you do start nic patches, I'd go with the 7mg for a few days before switching to the 14mg than many people find therapeutic.

Good luck with whatever you decide!

Just to be clear...I stated in my comment that nicotine might create a PSYCHOLOGICAL need and that other drugs might create a PHYSIOLOGIC need. Two very different things...

I hear you.

My point is that we are all too-willing to try very expensive biologics and immunosuppressive drugs with their own consequences and known or unknown long-term sequelae, yet are unwilling to try a purified substance that God put on this earth.

Purified and quantified nicotine in approved doses is very unlikely to cause harm.

If someone is in a life-threatening crisis, I can understand using the big guns first. For myself, I will do anything and everything I can think of to avoid those types of medications.

To each his/her own. OP has already decided to use some of the big guns...nic seems very minor in risk (even if addiction develops) compared to Remicade and the like.

Very few drugs act upon the body to replace something necessary for life that the body is not producing. Actually, I can only think of hormones, proteins and enzymes that the body produces in its normal state where genetic variance or organ failure cause the body to be deficient. I have low, and at times, no thyroid function, so I take thyroid hormone. Cystic fibrosis and other diseases like that need to have enzyme replacement...there are many many more examples, like diabetes.

Other drugs change the body's response to a stimulus...viral, bacterial, toxin...

Nobody was born with a mesalamine, nicotine or inflixibmab deficiency. We are using these to coerce our bodies to deal with the assaults we suffer.

The commonly used prednisone...which is a variant of the steroids normally produced in our bodies,
used in high doses causes us to endure extreme side effects, both physiologic and psychologic.

Great article awareness72- thanks for sharing. I also recommend (http://pharmrev.aspetjournals.org/content/57/1/79.full#title3) which has a lot of info on nicotine- here is an excerpt regarding addiction:



The rapid rate of delivery of nicotine by smoking (or intravenous injection, which presents similar distribution kinetics) results in high levels of nicotine in the central nervous system with little time for development of tolerance. The result is a more intense pharmacologic action (Porchet et al., 1987). The short time interval between puffing and nicotine entering the brain also allows the smoker to titrate the dose of nicotine to a desired pharmacologic effect, further reinforcing drug self-administration and facilitating the development of addiction.

In contrast, slow delivery of nicotine, such as by transdermal systems, results in little, if any, arterial-venous disequilibrium. The resultant brain levels of nicotine are much lower than after smoking, and the gradual rise in levels of nicotine in the central nervous system allows for the development of considerable tolerance to pharmacologic effects. Thus, the intensity of central nervous system effects is much less, and the addiction liability with the use of transdermal nicotine is virtually nil (Henningfield and Keenan, 1993). Routes of dosing that are associated with more rapid rates of delivery, such as nasal spray, are expected to result in higher intensity of effects and higher addiction liability when compared with products with slower absorption. Some indications of this were seen in a recent study comparing the abuse liability of the nicotine patch, gum, nasal spray, and inhaler in smoking cessation (West et al., 2000). Nasal spray had the highest rate of continuing use at the end of the study compared with the other NRTs; however, overall abuse liability was low for all products. These same considerations regarding rate of delivery and pharmacologic effects are expected to apply to nicotine-related compounds.


Full disclosure: I am using the nicotine patch and was also worried about addiction. I was not a former smoker, but did have exposure to 2nd hand smoke growing up and that makes me wonder about this. I would really love to see more studies done about nicotine use for UC.

Hey Moss and Bland.. thanks for the info.

Yeah very interesting.. and as I suspected with patches.. just not the same as smoking, vaping or rapid intake. I'm currently testing out the oral spray.. it's very quick to hit, felt immediately. This might explain why patches haven't been as successful?

I plan on testing out the vaping / ecig route (I just try everything). It's highly technical though, my head is swamped after 2 days reading.. though it's harder for us in AUS, we have to import pure nic from the US or overseas. It would be a good trial though for myself to see if nic actually works.