Nicotine effects on mismatch negativity in nonsmoking schizophrenic patients.

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial looks at Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

The goal of the present study is to identify the effect of nicotine on auditory automatic processing, as reflected by mismatch negativity (MMN), in nonsmoking schizophrenic patients.

Who Took Part

The study group was 10 volunteers.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults, both men and women.

Ten nonsmoking schizophrenic patients and 10 healthy volunteers underwent a reference session and 2 test sessions.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled.

The volunteers were allocated by chance, so the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

Blinding on both sides kept the volunteers and researchers unaware of who received Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) could be set against what happens without it.

The test sessions involved administration of a placebo patch and a nicotine skin patch, which were counterbalanced.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Acoustic Stimulation, Administration, Cutaneous, Analysis of Variance, Area Under Curve, Case-Control Studies, Contingent Negative Variation and Electroencephalography.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in 10 volunteers.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 4 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 2007 (Neuropsychobiology), a journal based in Switzerland.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page, all human trials.