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A Mechanistic Hypothesis Of The Factors That Enhance Vulnerability To Nicotine Use In Females, Laura O'Dell
A Mechanistic Hypothesis Of The Factors That Enhance Vulnerability To Nicotine Use In Females, Laura O'Dell
Laura Elena O'Dell
Women are particularly more vulnerable to tobacco use than men. This review proposes a unifying hypothesis that females experience greater rewarding effects of nicotine and more intense stress produced by withdrawal than males. We also provide a neural framework whereby estrogen promotes greater rewarding effects of nicotine in females via enhanced dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc). During withdrawal, we suggest that corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) stress systems are sensitized and promote a greater suppression of dopamine release in the NAcc of females versus males. Taken together, females display enhanced nicotine reward via estrogen and amplified effects of withdrawal via …