A report released on Tuesday in the medical journal Neurology finds the patches may help to improve mild memory loss in older adults.
Scientists studied non- smokers who had mild cognitive impairment a stage between normal aging and dementia marked by mild memory and thinking problems.
Those who received a nicotine patch regained 46 percent of normal performance in long term memory. The group that did not get nicotine worsened by 26 percent over the same period.