Brain's Relaxed Response Snares Young Smokers From First Nicotine Hit

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience
Article Date: 03 Oct 2007 - 2:00 PDT


Researchers have said that teenagers who feel relaxed after their first drag on a cigarette are most likely to become addicted to smoking, a sign that some people's brains are more susceptible to nicotine.

While peer pressure and other factors may lead young people to try smoking, it is the brain's response when it is first exposed to nicotine that most determines who becomes addicted, the study reports.

The study coincides with the introduction of new legislation which makes it illegal for anyone under 18 to buy tobacco in England, Scotland or Wales. The NHS estimates that about 9 per cent of 11 to 15-year-olds and 26 per cent of 16 to 19-year-olds are smokers.

Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School based their findings on more than 12,000 interviews with 1,246 high school students over four years. Personality factors determined which young people would try smoking, but it was the manner in which the brain reacts to nicotine that was most important in determining if someone would then become addicted, they said. Experiencing a feeling of relaxation in response to the first cigarette was the strongest predictor of addiction.

Of the 217 teenagers who tried smoking during the study, nearly one-third reported feeling relaxed after inhaling for the first time, and two-thirds of them became addicted to smoking.

The study is published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Joseph DiFranza, who led the research, said: "We know that nicotine can have an immediate impact on the brain, and yet we also know that not every adolescent who tries a cigarette becomes addicted."
"It appears that it is an addictive physiology and not an addictive personality that determines who will become dependent."

The study said one theory suggests that nicotine suppresses pathways in the brain that generate the feeling of craving, which is experienced as relaxation. That in turn creates a craving for nicotine when the drug is absent.

Dr DiFranza writes: "Cravings represent the desire to repeat a pleasurable drug-mediated experience. These findings underscore our belief that the development of dependence is triggered by the changes in brain chemistry that follow the very first dose of nicotine."

Among the traits that protected students from becoming addicted were being involved in extracurricular activities, the report said.

Overall, 83 of the 217 participants who tried cigarettes became regular smokers. Other risk factors for addiction among first time smokers was a depressed mood, a novelty-seeking personality, and familiarity with "Joe Camel," an animated character used to advertise Camel brand cigarettes.

This particular advertising campaign had ended in 1997, but was still recognised during the study's interviews between 2002 to 2006. This suggests that "the deleterious effects of cigarette advertising persist long after the exposure", the researchers said.

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