4 Troubled Teens Blog

A study that was sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has revealed that fewer teenagers are able to buy cigarettes.

In 2008, fewer than 10 percent of retailers sold tobacco to minors, down from 40 percent in the mid-1990s.

Researchers believe the primary reason for the decrease in sales is more states are enforcing laws that are designed to keep minors from accessing tobacco.

In addition to the many health problems that are associated with teen tobacco use, researchers have also established a link between teen alcohol abuse and teen smoking.

Labels: teens, tobacco use

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Researchers at Temple University have found that teenagers who engage in heavy drinking are also more likely to smoke heavily.

Dr. Brian Daly and his colleagues used data from 2450 Philadelphia high school students in grades nine through 12. They asked the students how many cigarettes they smoked per day and how many times they had five or more drinks in a row during the last month, and found a link between binge drinking and heavy smoking.

"We can't just focus on educating adolescents about the dangers of smoking or drinking," Dr. Daly said in an Aug. 11 ScienceDaily article. "We need to address both as one health risk."

Dr. Daly's study was presented at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting.

Labels: research, teens, tobacco use, alcohol_abuse

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Non-smokers exposed to secondhand smoke can experience depression and mood changes, according to two new studies.

• Dr. Mark Hamer of University College London found that people exposed to secondhand smoke undergo changes in hormones that regulate stress, which in turn may cause them psychological stress.
• He studied 5,569 smokers and 2,595 smokers, having them provide saliva samples and answer questionnaires.

"Our data are preliminary, but there is a strong possibility that the observed association reflects a causal link," Dr. Hammer wrote in a report published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

The second study found increased depression among people experiencing secondhand smoke. Dr. David Lee of Miami Miller School of Medicine, whose study was published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, based his conclusions on an analysis of data from a survey of 3,000 adults.

Labels: depression, tobacco use

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Drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes is a deadly combination. In fact, it is the most preventable cause of death worldwide, according to the World Health Association.

Now a new study from University of Queensland in Australia found that the combination may actually change the structure of cells in a portion of the brain called the nucleus accumbens. The two drugs enhance the addictive qualities of one another, according to Professor Traute Flatscher-Bader.

Dr. Flatscher-Bader analyzed brain tissue from deceased people who had smoked, drank alcohol, or did a combination of the two. The ones who used the combination showed changes in the nucleus accumbens, a pleasure center in the brain.

The study appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.
 

Labels: tobacco use, alcohol_abuse

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 2 Comments

Depressed teenagers who attempt to self-medicate by using cigarettes to fight depression may actually be making their depression worse, according to a new study from the University of Toronto and the University of Montréal in Canada.

• Researchers interviewed 662 high school students from a variety of backgrounds,.
• The researchers divided the students into three groups -- those who never smoke, those who use cigarettes to enhance their mood or physical well-being, and those who do not use cigarettes that way.
• Then the researchers measured the students' levels of depression by asking questions such as "how often do you feel too tired to do things," "how often do you have trouble going to sleep," and so forth.

"Smokers who use cigarettes as mood enhancers have higher risks of elevated depressive symptoms than teenagers who never smoked," said Professor Jennifer O'Loughlin, a co-author of the study and a professor at the University of Montréal. "Our study found that adolescent smokers who reported emotional benefits from smoking are at higher risk of developing depression."

The study appears in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

Labels: depression, tobacco use, smoking

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

According to a Dec. 26 article on the NationalCyberSecurity website, researchers associated with Great Britain's National Health Service (NHS) have identified two genetic variants that make teenagers more prone to becoming addicted to tobacco:

Teenagers carrying variants in two gene regions were shown to be three times more likely to become regular smokers in adolescence and twice as likely to be persistent smokers in adulthood, compared to non-carriers, according to a study by scientists at the UK’s only Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) for Mental Health* at the Maudsley Hospital and the School of Public Health, Imperial College, both in London, UK, and the University of Oulu, Finland.

One variant is associated with a person’s risk of starting smoking while the other influences their chances of carrying on with the habit into adulthood.

Writing in the US journal, Biological Psychiatry, the researchers say the findings could help develop genetic testing for those wishing to know their susceptibility to nicotine dependence and tobacco-related disease. It could also pave the way for targeted drugs that influence an individual’s response to nicotine.

In addition to being unhealthy on its own, teen smoking has also been associated with rising rates of other dangerous teen behaviors, including alcohol abuse, drug abuse and unprotected sex.

Labels: tobacco use, smoking

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