Microstructural meal pattern analysis reveals that nicotine is a potent anti-anorectic drug despite producing long-term anorexigenic effects

Nicotine consumption in both human and animal studies has been strongly associated with changes in feeding-related behaviors and metabolism. The current dogma is that chronic nicotine decreases food intake and increases metabolism, leading to lower body weight. However, the effect of acute nicotine intake on feeding is unclear. The present study employed microstructural and macrostructural behavioral analyses to elucidate changes in feeding behavior in animals that intravenously self-administered nicotine. At the microstructural level (seconds to minutes), nicotine increased feeding and drinking behavior during the first 5 minutes after nicotine self-administration. This effect was also observed in animals that passively received nicotine, but the effect was not observed in animals that self-administered saline or passively received saline. At the macrostructural level (hours to days), nicotine decreased body weight gain, decreased feeding, and was associated with increases in feeding and body weight gain during abstinence. These results suggest that nicotine first produces anti-anorectic effects before producing long-term anorexigenic effects. These results challenge the notion that nicotine is an anorexigenic drug and paradoxically suggest that the anorexigenic effects of nicotine may be a long-term consequence of acute anti-anorectic effects of nicotine.