Teenagers who feel relaxed after their first drags on a cigarette are most likely to become addicted to smoking, a sign that some people’s brains are more susceptible to nicotine, researchers said on Monday.”We know that nicotine can have an immediate impact on the brain, and yet we also know that not every adolescent who tries a cigarette gets hooked,” said researcher Dr. Joseph DiFranza of the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
While peer pressure and other factors may lead young people to try smoking, it is the brain’s response to that first dose of nicotine that likely most determines who gets addicted, according to DiFranza’s report published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Experiencing a feeling of relaxation in response to the first cigarette was the strongest predictor of addiction, the study found.
Read more. And see Trey Moore’s take on whether smoking is cool, here.