Tobacco and Public Health - TCSC Indonesia

Introduction
Chapter 7
Behavioral pharmacology of nicotine
reinforcement
Bridgette E. Garrett, Linda Dwoskin,
Michael Bardo, and Jack E. Henningfield
A key feature of drug addiction is compulsive and highly controlled drug seeking and
self-administration, which often occur, despite the users’ awareness of harmful effects
(O’Brien 1996; American Psychiatric Association 1994; World Health Organization
1992). Addictive drugs, in turn, are defined in part by their ability to act as reinforcers
as a result of their actions in the brain; these actions are often associated with desirable
alterations of mood and feeling state (O’Brien 1996; US DHHS 1988).
The 1998 U.S. Surgeon General’s conclusion that nicotine met all criteria for an
addictive drug was based in part on findings that nicotine could produce (1) highly
controlled or compulsive use, (2) psychoactive or mood-altering effects, and (3) that
the drug functioned as a reinforcer (US DHHS 1988). The fact that tobacco use could
be compulsive and that nicotine could alter mood and produce psychoactive effects
had been known for centuries before the Surgeon General’s report, but the determination
that it met the most stringent criteria for a reinforcer was one of the pivotal findings
supporting the conclusion of the 1988 report.
Understanding the nature and determinants of the reinforcing effects of nicotine
and how these can be modulated by tobacco delivery systems is a key factor in understanding
tobacco addiction and for developing more effective means to prevention and
treatment. The field of science that addresses such issues is termed ‘behavioral pharmacology’
(Thompson and Schuster 1968) and a behavioral pharmacological analysis
of nicotine reinforcement will be the focus of this chapter.
Drug reinforcement. A drug is said to be reinforcing, or capable of producing
reinforcement, when its administration can be used to strengthen behavior leading to
its presentation (Thompson and Schuster 1968). This is a key behavioral pharmacological
mechanism, by which highly controlled or compulsive drug use can be established
namely, through the strengthening of behavior produced by the presentation of the
drug. The strength of the resultant behavior is related to factors such as the chemistry
of the drug itself, which can lead to controlled behavior. The reinforcing effects are