In this New York Times piece about a doctor’s Hobson’s choice with his nicotine-addicted patient comes this striking, succinct observation:
“…(T)he central challenge of treating any addiction is that the treatment is almost never as pleasurable as the addiction itself.
Like opiates and cocaine, nicotine is known to stimulate the release of dopamine in the reward pathways of the brain. This explains its pleasurable and powerfully self-reinforcing effects. Nicotine also releases an array of other neurotransmitters like serotonin, norepinephrine and vasopressin that mediate its other effects, like arousal, alertness and relaxation.”
