ABSTRACT
Although smoking cigarettes continues to be portrayed as glamorous in advertisements and to attract a new generation of smokers, it has undergone a transformation in public awareness from bad habit to drug addiction. The health consequences of smoking have also been well established and publicized. This chapter provides a foundation for understanding nicotine addiction by examining two different approaches to the same phenomenon. One approach looks at nicotine addiction from the perspective of the cell, and the other from the perspective of the whole person. One approach examines nicotine addiction viewed from recent developments in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. In the other approach, cigarette smoking is examined as a clinical disorder.
