Misc Anyone know how much MAOI is in, say, the average cigarette?

[ChemicallyEnhanced]

The reason why NRT fails to work for a lot of people is because that's only half the addiction. Tobacco itself containers MAOIs which is also addictive and there aren't any NRT products - including e-cigs - that contain tobacco.

But how MUCH would be in an average cigarette? Obviously a lot less than in actual prescription MAOIs, but then again you wouldn't take 20 MAOI pills in one day like with cigarettes.

I take an SSRI daily and actually started that before I started smoking but have never experienced any bad effects from the two.

 

[kleinerkiffer]

Quantification in several smoked cigarettes showed that norharman and harman occurred in all recovered samples of smoke with mean values of 2192 ng/cigarette (range 1114–5846) for norharman and 853 ng/cigarette (range 453–2165) for harman.
The absolute concentration of b-carbolines in smoke may vary depending on the type of cigarette and tobacco, brand, and smoking way. The kinetic parameters corresponding to human MAO-A and -B activity in presence of smoke b-carbolines (norharman and harman) were studied further. IC50 experimental values of both compounds confirmed that they are good MAO-A inhibitors, with values (mean ? SEM) of 337.3 nM ? 9.34 for harman and 6.47 lM ? 0.28 for norharman (250 lM of kynuramine, 4-fold the Km value). Norharman was a much weaker inhibitor of MAO-A than harman.
...
Similarly, the kinetics of the inhibition of recombinant human MAO-B by both b-carbolines were determined. The experimental IC50 values showed that norharman was a good MAO-B inhibitor with IC50 of 4.68 ? 0.33 lM, whereas harman did not inhibit this enzyme up to 25 lM concentrations.
....
Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging studies have shown that cigarette smokers exhibit a 40% decrease in the brain activity of MAO-B and a 30% reduction in MAO-A

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0006291X04025999?via=ihub

 

[MDPV_Psychosis]

I've quit tobacco twice in my life. First time I quit, almost 20 years ago, I was a pack a day smoker for three years and second time I quit was six months ago from half a can of chew per day for 6 years.

In both cases I quit by substituting with nicotine patches then tapered off the patches. In both cases the nicotine patch (when sized correctly) was able to fully cover all physical withdrawal symptoms for me. So, for me at least, I don't attribute much weight to the MAOI argument.

However, I concede that individual experiences and metabolisms, genetics, etc vary so it's possible that for some people the MAOIs can play a more significant role. In either case I'm interested to learn more but I'm always cautious with nicotine related research, too much money and polarized opinions can be hidden behind the scenes.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

Not very much at all. If it was significant, smokers would need diets. There are other alkaloids in tobacco and more added chemicals (and more created chemicals when it burns) that make cigs so addictive