In their study, the researchers compared the amount of nicotine self-administered by adolescent rats to the amount used by animals first exposed during adulthood. Young rats showed nearly double the rate of nicotine use compared with those initially exposed as adults, the study found.
The adolescents' heavier nicotine use persisted into adulthood, the team reports in the September 2003 issue of the journal Psychopharmacology.
"The results indicate that early nicotine exposure can leave a lasting imprint on the brain," said Edward Levin, Ph.D., professor in the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at Duke University Medical Center and a researcher at Duke's Nicotine Research Center. The study was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health.
Most tobacco use begins during adolescence, Levin pointed out. Among smokers in the United States, 88 percent smoked their first cigarette before the age of 18 and 60 percent before age 14. Adolescence is also a crucial period for the brain, he said, in which the final phase of neuron development occurs.
"The great majority of tobacco addiction begins during adolescence, yet little is known about differential effects of nicotine in adolescents versus adults," Levin said.
Other studies have suggested that smokers who take up the habit at a young age are more likely to continue to smoke, Levin said. However, researchers find it difficult to assess the underlying cause of an association between age and addiction in humans, he added, because the same factors that m
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Contact: Kendall Morgan
kendall.morgan@duke.edu
919-684-4148
Duke University Medical Center
8-Sep-2003