Human Trials Of Anti-Smoking Vaccine Begin

Makarand writes "A Nicotine vaccine that may help smokers to quit has made it to human trials. The vaccine is administered as a series of eight shots -- patients receive two shots per visit during four different visits. The vaccine works by stimulating the human immune system to produce antibodies that bind with the nicotine molecules to form a larger complex molecule which cannot pass through the blood/brain barrier to get into the brain. As a result smokers will not feel the 'high' from the cigarettes they light up and lose interest in smoking. Preliminary studies have shown that this vaccine is safe in humans." (Each link goes to a slightly different version of the same wire story.)

Comments

There's more than one type of addiction

[Dr Tall]

Maybe this could be used to treat physical addiction, but I don't see how it would help psychological addiction. You can become clinically addicted to something without your body being dependent on the substance; you just feel an uncontrolable urge to smoke, not for the high feeling, but just because you always smoke on the way to work, always smoke at parties, etc.