Genetics Determine Which Teen Smokers Become Addicted

A new study has found that genetics may be responsible in determining if a teenager who takes up smoking becomes a lifelong heavy smoker.

A team of scientists from the U.S., the U.K. and New Zealand undertook a study that found genetics may be responsible in determining if a teenager who takes up smoking becomes a lifelong heavy smoker. The study analyzed the date of 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to age 38 to identify whether individuals at high genetic risk got hooked on cigarettes more quickly as teens and whether, as adults, they had a harder time quitting.

"Genetic risk accelerated the development of smoking behavior," said Daniel Belsky, a post-doctoral research fellow at Duke University's Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development and the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy. "Teens at a high genetic risk transitioned quickly from trying cigarettes to becoming regular, heavy smokers."

However, scientists clarified that a person's genetic profile does not indicate whether the person will try smoking or not. Nonetheless, people with high-risk genetic profile who did try smoking at least once were found to be more likely to become lifelong heavy smokers. Among teens who tried cigarettes, those with a high-risk genetic profile were 24 percent more likely to become daily smokers by age 15 and 43 percent more likely to become pack-a-day smokers by age 18.

"Adolescence is indeed a period of high risk for nicotine addiction," said Denise Kandel, a professor of sociomedical sciences in psychiatry at Columbia University, who was not involved in this study. "The results illustrate why adolescence is of crucial importance for the development and targeting of prevention and intervention efforts. How this genetic risk affects brain functions, which in turn affect reactions to nicotine, remains to be determined."

The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry.