What causes cigarette cravings? A brief guide by Professor Robert West, University College London

The first cigarette Cigarette smoke is inhaled leading to a spike of nicotine hitting the brain with each puff http://cigarettezoom.com/

The first cigarette To the brain, nicotine looks somewhat like the naturally occurring chemical messenger, acetylcholine Nicotine Acetylcholine

The first cigarette So it attaches itself to some of the ‘receptors’ in the nerve cells that normally respond to acetylcholine

The first cigarette There are a large number of these receptors in a part of the mid-brain called the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) www.emaze.com

The first cigarette This causes a surge of activity in the nerve cells concerned, which project forward to the Nucleus Accumbens

The first cigarette This this leads to release in the Nucleus Accumbens of another chemical messenger called ‘dopamine’ http://www.quia.com/

The first cigarette This trains the brain to associate the immediately preceding activity with the current situation http://psychologized.org/

The first cigarette So the brain strengthens the impulse to smoke the next time the situation is encountered http://www.dailymail.co.uk/

Situation Impulse With each cigarette The stimulus-impulse link grows stronger creating powerful situational urges to smoke Situation Impulse

So smokers develop situational cravings for cigarettes because nicotine trains the brain to generate an urge to smoke in situations where smoking normally occurs

But that’s not all …

‘Nicotine hunger’ In many smokers, the central reward pathway functions abnormally unless it is bathed in nicotine so when nicotine levels are low the smoker feels a drive to smoke www.emaze.com

Withdrawal symptoms Neural adaptation to nicotine leads to ‘nicotine withdrawal symptoms’: irritability, depressed mood, hunger, restlessness, difficulty concentrating … and more http://www.iquit-smoking.com/

But that’s not all …

Smokers come to believe that smoking helps with stress False beliefs Smokers come to believe that smoking helps with stress quitsmokingcommunity.org

Smoking becomes socially rewarding Social reward Smoking becomes socially rewarding http://www.thesite.org/

So rapid hits of nicotine from cigarettes lead to: Situational cravings Nicotine hunger Withdrawal symptoms False beliefs about smoking benefits Social rewards from smoking

Stopping smoking Staying off cigarettes means keeping the resolve not to smoke greater than the urge to smoke at al times