Smoking Causes Depression in Teenagers

Scientists from the the University of Toronto and the University of Montreal have carried out an o observational study that showed that smoking can actually increase depressive symptoms in some adolescents.

For the study, 662 high school teenagers filled up 20 questionnaires from grades 7 to 11 about their use of cigarettes to influence mood.

As this is a Canadian study, secondary schools were selected so that there would be a mix of French and English participants, urban and rural schools, and schools located in high, moderate and low socioeconomic neighborhoods.

The subjects were separated into three groups – those than never smoked, those that did not use cigarettes to self-medicate, affect mood of physical state and finally, smokers who used cigarettes as self-medication.

The researchers measured depressive symptoms using a scale that asked how often the subjects felt too tired to do anything, had sleep problems, felt unhappy, sad or depressed, hopeless about their future, tense or nervous and worried too much in general.

Co-author Jennifer O'Loughlin, a professor at the University of Montreal Department of Social and Preventive Medicine and scientist at the of the University of Montreal Hospital Research Center says that “smokers who used cigarettes as mood enhancers had higher risks of elevated depressive symptoms than teens who had never smoked.

“Our study found that adolescent smokers who reported emotional benefits from smoking are at higher risk of developing depressive symptoms,” she added.

“This observational study is one of the few to examine the perceived emotional benefits of smoking among adolescents,” said lead author Michael Chaiton, a research associate at the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit of the University of Toronto.

He added that “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.”

The risk of the association between smoking and depression appears mainly in teenagers that smoke to feel better.

“It's important to emphasize that depressive symptom scores were higher among teenagers who reported emotional benefits from smoking after they began to smoke,”explains Dr. Chaiton.

These findings are part of the long-term Nicotine Dependence in Teens (NDIT) study based at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Center and they were published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.