- Teenagers All Over the World are Still Smoking - Photo by Valentin Ottone
A Canadian study on smoking and teenagers suggests the two are an even worse combination than they were already known to have been. Why? Because smoking is increasing the likelihood of teens feeling depressed. The study was released last week by the Canadian Nicotine Dependence in Teens trial.
Study lead, Dr. Michael Chaiton, PhD, a research associate at the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit in Toronto, Canada, said the observational study is one of few studies that has ever looked at "...perceived emotional benefits of smoking" in adolescents and "...demonstrate the long-term trend" of smoking increasing depression symptoms rather than decreasing them.
"Before smoking, all the adolescents [in study] had roughly the same level of depression symptoms, but after they started smoking, [the smokers] depression levels were much higher," Dr. Chaiton reported. “Although cigarettes may appear to have self-medicating effects or to improve mood, in the long term we found teens who started to smoke reported higher depressive symptoms.”
Canadian Smoking Habits Study Debunks Myth That Cigarettes Elevate Mood
The study had approximately 662 Ontario and Quebec students from grades 7 to 11 complete over time as many as 20 questionnaires on mood and smoking. The student group was a mixture of French and English and were of varying socio-economic ranges. The study group was broken into 3 groups: those who'd never smoked, those who said they used cigarettes to "self-medicate" and those who did not use cigarettes to self-medicate.
A variety of questions were used to probe the effects of smoking surrounding the issues of fatigue, happiness, sleep patterns, nervous feelings and feelings of hopeless about the future.
“Smokers who used cigarettes as mood enhancers had higher risks of elevated depressive symptoms than teens who had never smoked,” coauthor Jennifer O'Loughlin, a professor at the Université de Montréal Department of Social and Preventive Medicine said. “Our study found that adolescent smokers who reported emotional benefits from smoking are at higher risk of developing depressive symptoms.”
Teenagers in Canada and Around the World are Still Smoking
In 2008, O'Loughlin was part of another study which mapped how teens started smoking and that study found many teens can become addicted in a relatively short period of time. "As soon as they experience craving, the story is over," she said at the time about that study. "They're on the trajectory to becoming an adult smoker."
Smoking rates for Canadian teenagers between 15 and 19 had at one point dropped from 36 per cent in 1999 all the way down to 18 per cent in 2006. But researchers warn against apathy and research shows that teen smokers who graduate into adulthood still smoking on average take well over a decade to quit. Many don't manage it at all.
In 2002 the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that between 80,000 and 100,000 teens on the planet start smoking each and every day. Old numbers but still startling. "Teens are still smoking and it's a huge public health problem," O'Loughlin said.
Participants in Study on Depression and Smoking and Teens
Published in the journal Addictive Behaviors the paper, entitled "Use of Cigarettes to Improve Affect and Depressive Symptoms in a Longitudinal Study of Adolescents," was written by Chaiton, Joanna Cohen and Juergen Rehm of the University of Toronto and O'Loughlin of the University of Montreal.
Sources:
Brauser, Deborah; "Cigarette Smoking May Increase Depressive Symptoms in Adolescents," Medscape Today Online, Sept. 1, 2010 (accessed Sept. 5, 2010).
Fidelman, C. "Smoking a Tough Addiction, Teens Discover," The Montreal Gazette, July 17, 2008 (accessed Sept. 5, 2010).
The World Health Organization (WHO) website.
