Antidepressant Effects of Nicotine

Letter to the Editor

Sir: I was surprised and chagrined to read the article "Antidepressant
Effect of Transdermal Nicotine Patches in Nonsmoking
Patients With Major Depression" by Dr. Salín-Pascual
and associates in the Journal.

It is hardly a medical mystery that nicotine provides improvement
in mood for smokers. For any physician with a modicum
of clinical experience, this mood elevation has been
reported by most smokers and is often given as a reason for the
difficulty in stopping smoking.