Smoking Teens Can be Prone to Depression




Although “conventional wisdom” states that smoking can be beneficial for depressed people, scientific studies show that, on the contrary, the reverse is true. A new trial conducted by US scientists has demonstrated that depression in teenagers can actually be caused by smoking cigarettes.


The research, which was led by Dr. E. Goodman from Cincinnati’s Children’s Hospital Medical Center (Ohio) and published in a journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has found that smoking teenagers run almost a four-fold risk of suffering from depression, in comparison with their non-smoking peers. It has been shown that a considerable percentage of smoking teens tend to exhibit symptoms of a full-blown clinical depression within about a year of their tobacco consumption. The results of the study were based on the analysis of a vast number of teenagers’ health-related questionnaires from the mid 1990s. About 12 percent of cigarette-addicted teens have reported the onset of depressive symptoms within the first year of their smoking, in comparison with only five percent in those teenagers who never smoked.

Nicotine, as well as other harmful substances found in cigarette smoke, is known to have a profound depressive effect on neurotransmitters and certain parts of the central nervous system. It can also trigger mood swings, heart palpitations, irritability, anxiety, and other symptoms of imbalanced nerves, which are often observed in people suffering from depression. At that, young people, and especially teenagers, are more receptive to the damaging effects of cigarette smoke on the brain and nerve function.

It is known that tobacco addiction can be managed by anti-depressive drugs, which also suggests a link between cigarette smoking and clinical depression.

In addition, the scientists have found that teenage smoking is associated with elevated levels of suicide, and that both adult and teen smoking can cause depressive symptoms. However, some researchers think that cigarette smoking is not a cause, but a consequence of a depressive state, and that many teens apply to tobacco in an attempt to self-medicate themselves. But, the newest evidence suggests that smoking can be involved in triggering depression instead of being a mere reaction to it.

The data also show that light smokers among teens may be less prone to depression than heavier smokers.

Deanna Campbell

Related Posts

Posted on May 2, 2008 
Filed Under Facts on Smoking, Smoking and Health, Smoking and Youth, Tobacco Research

Comments

Leave a Reply