Transdermal nicotine and Down's syndrome
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Cognitive improvements were found in five retarded individuals subjected to auditory response tests after being given 5 mg of transdermal nicotine for two hours, University of Austria, Vienna researchers report in the Oct. 21 Lancet. The study, conducted by Rainer Seidl, MD, et al., found "improvements possibly related to attention and information processing" in a group of five 18-34 year old patients with Down's syndrome in relation to controls. Seidl et al. note due to the small study size, results cannot be generalized, and the effects of higher nicotine doses are not known. Nicotine patches were provided by Pharmacia