I for one, probably the only one, have actually used smoking tobacco therapeutically (albeit self-administered therapy).
In the late 90's I developed various neurological symptoms later diagnosed as Parkinsons. As the symptoms continued to develop they did not however, remain consistent with Parkinsons and the diagnosis was revised to "Hell-If-I-Know". The prescribed treatment was a cocktail of drugs that while they did help to relieve the symptoms, made my life a prolonged and protracted misery. I had no energy, my legs and feet would randomly swell up like balloons, my memory began to fail, etc. I very much and very actively wanted to die, and my life fell apart around me - divorce, unemployment....
Eventually, after a few years of floundering around, I began experimenting with bio-feedback and meditation to control my symptoms and slowly weaned myself off of the medicines. While generally successful, this approach was very hard to maintain and any major disruption to my mental or physical state of well-being would trigger a relapse and I would be temporarily unable to take care of myself.
One day, during a bad episode, an old man approached me and gave me a cigarette and told me to smoke it. I'd quit smoking about ten years before and had no interest in starting again, but not being particularly attracted to life at the time, I tried it. As I sat there the old guy explained to me that in the nineteenth century and before, nicotine was used medicinally and thought to improve mental acuity and concentration. I remained skeptical, but it did make it easier for me to maintain the inner balance I needed to keep my symptoms in check.
In short, I started smoking again.
Back when I was going to see a new neurologist a month, one of the questions they always asked was whether or not I smoked or drank (neither at the time), and if so, how that affected my symptoms. It struck me as odd at the time, but I did call one of my former doctors about the matter. He said that while no doctor in his right mind would recommend smoking, it was known that nicotine could affect some neurological symptoms, particularly those with movement disorders.
In the years since, I've also heard first-hand that those suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder also find smoking to be therapeutic. My relapses during this time have decreased in number from being weekly occurrences to sporadic quarterly events.
Since then, I've gotten my life sufficiently back together that I worry about the health risks involved with smoking. I tried quitting cold turkey and after about five days, suffered a relapse of symptoms. After that, I took a more gradual approach, weaning myself down while carefully taking notes with regard to my symptoms. What I've found is that two cigarettes/day or a 14mg Nicotine patch worn for a half-day is a sufficient maintenance level. At this point, I rely primarily on the patch and have been doing Okay since mid-February. I've tried reducing the patch dosage, but so far have always ended up with a relapse.
I don't pretend that this is a scientific study, but neither can I argue with the results. I don't have any regrets either. If patches were suddenly not available and I had the choice of drug-therapy, smoking, or nothing, drug therapy would still be my last choice - that life simply wasn't worth living.
