Long-term effects of adolescent smoking on depression and socioeconomic status in adulthood in an urban African American cohort

Adolescent Substance Use and the Brain: Behavioral, Cognitive and Neuroimaging Correlates

Adolescence is an important ontogenetic period that is characterized by behaviors such as enhanced novelty-seeking, impulsivity, and reward preference, which can give rise to an increased risk for substance use. While substance use rates in adolescence are generally on a decline, the current rates combined with emerging trends, such as increases in e-cigarette use, remain a significant public health concern. In this review, we focus on the neurobiological divergences associated with adolescent substance use, derived from a cross-sectional, retrospective, and longitudinal studies, and highlight how the use of these substances during adolescence may relate to behavioral and neuroimaging-based outcomes. Identifying and understanding the associations between adolescent substance use and changes in cognition, mental health, and future substance use risk may assist our understanding of the consequences of drug exposure during this critical window.

Smoking, alcohol consumption, and illicit substances use among adolescents in Poland

Background

The use of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit substances typically first occurs in adolescence. The purpose of this study was to examine alcohol, cigarette, and illicit substance use among adolescents in Poland, including the age of initiation, frequency of use, methods of access, location of use, and parental knowledge and attitude.

Methods

An author-derived questionnaire was used to cross-sectionally survey 541 participants aged 13–17 years old. Due to the fact that some answers were lacking, the number of questionnaires analysed was 538 in case of smoking and illicit substances use, and 535 in case of alcohol drinking.

Results

The use of alcohol, cigarette, and illicit substance among the investigated group was 36.1, 37.6, and 10.8% respectively. The average age of initiation was 13–14 years old. Parents were aware of alcohol, cigarette, and illicit substance use 49.5, 35.8 and 22.4% of the time, respectively, and the rate of acceptance was 5.7 and 6.7% for alcohol and cigarettes. More than 28% of participants smoked in school, and 32.7% accessed illicit substances in the school’s neighborhood.

Conclusions

The rate of alcohol, cigarette, and illicit substance use in Poland is high and increasing, despite globally designed preventative actions. Parents’ awareness of children’s alcohol, cigarette, or illicit substance use is low, and schools hardly fulfil their educational and protective role. Preventative actions are necessary, and local challenges should be considered.

The Association of Cigarette Smoking With Depression and Anxiety: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND

Many studies report a positive association between smoking and mental illness. However, the literature remains mixed regarding the direction of this association. We therefore conducted a systematic review evaluating the association of smoking and depression and/or anxiety in longitudinal studies.

METHODS

Studies were identified by searching PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science and were included if they: (1) used human participants, (2) were longitudinal, (3) reported primary data, (4) had smoking as an exposure and depression and/or anxiety as an outcome, or (5) had depression and/or anxiety as the exposure and smoking as an outcome.

RESULTS

Outcomes from 148 studies were categorized into: smoking onset, smoking status, smoking heaviness, tobacco dependence, and smoking trajectory. The results for each category varied substantially, with evidence for positive associations in both directions (smoking to later mental health and mental health to later smoking) as well as null findings. Overall, nearly half the studies reported that baseline depression/anxiety was associated with some type of later smoking behavior, while over a third found evidence that a smoking exposure was associated with later depression/anxiety. However, there were few studies directly supporting a bidirectional model of smoking and anxiety, and very few studies reporting null results.

CONCLUSIONS

The literature on the prospective association between smoking and depression and anxiety is inconsistent in terms of the direction of association most strongly supported. This suggests the need for future studies that employ different methodologies, such as Mendelian randomization (MR), which will allow us to draw stronger causal inferences.

IMPLICATIONS

We systematically reviewed longitudinal studies on the association of different aspects of smoking behavior with depression and anxiety. The results varied considerably, with evidence for smoking both associated with subsequent depression and anxiety, and vice versa. Few studies supported a bidirectional relationship, or reported null results, and no clear patterns by gender, ethnicity, clinical status, length to follow-up, or diagnostic test. Suggesting that despite advantages of longitudinal studies, they cannot alone provide strong evidence of causality. Therefore, future studies investigating this association should employ different methods allowing for stronger causal inferences to be made, such as MR.

Effect of Adolescent Cigarette Smoking on Adulthood Substance Use and Abuse: The Mediating Role of Educational Attainment

BACKGROUND

Even though the association between cigarette smoking and later substance use has been shown, there is still no compelling evidence that demonstrates the long-term effects in a high drug using community in African Americans. Few studies have examined the mediating mechanisms of the effect of adolescent cigarette smoking on the drug progression pathway.

OBJECTIVES

We examined the long-term influence of adolescent smoking on later illegal drug use in a cohort of urban African Americans, and the mediating role of educational attainment in the drug progression pathway.

METHODS

The study used a longitudinal dataset from the Woodlawn Project that followed 1,242 African Americans from 1966-1967 (at age 6-7) through 2002-2003 (at age 42-43). We used the propensity score matching method to find a regular and a nonregular adolescent smoking group that had similar childhood characteristics; we used the matched sample to assess the association between adolescent smoking and drug progression, and the mediating role of educational attainment.

RESULTS

Adolescent regular smokers showed significantly higher odds of using marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, having alcohol abuse problems and any drug dependence, and abuse problems in adulthood. We found that educational attainment mediated most of the drug progression pathway, including cigarette smoking, marijuana, cocaine and heroin use, and drug dependence or abuse problems in adulthood, but not alcohol abuse.

CONCLUSIONS

More focus needs to be put on high school dropout and development of interventions in community settings for African Americans to alter the pathway for drug progression for adolescents who use cigarettes regularly.

Active smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke and their relationship to depressive symptoms in the Korea national health and nutrition examination survey (KNHANES)

BACKGROUND

The relationship between tobacco smoking, including secondhand smoking, and depression has been assessed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the association between secondhand smoking among current, former and never smokers and depressive symptoms. For secondhand smoking, gender differences and sources of exposure were examined.

METHODS

Data from 34,693 participants from the fourth and fifth Korean Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (2007-2012) were analyzed in 2014. Self-reported exposure to active (current, former or never) and secondhand smoking and depressive symptoms experienced during the past year were analyzed using logistic regression. The dose-response relationship between duration of secondhand smoke exposure and depression was assessed with stratification by gender and sources of exposure (at home only, at the workplace only or both).

RESULTS

Regardless of their smoking status, all women who had secondhand smoke exposure at home reported more depressive symptoms than non-smoking women without any exposure to secondhand cigarette smoking (OR 1.43, 95 % CI 1.04-1.96 for current smokers; OR 2.32, 95 % CI 1.04-5.16 for former smokers; OR 1.25, 95 % CI 1.08-1.43 for never smokers). There was also a significant dose-response pattern (p-trend <0.001) for the duration of secondhand smoke exposure at home among women. No significant association was found between smoking and depressive symptoms in men.

CONCLUSIONS

There was a significant association between secondhand smoke exposure at home and depressive symptoms in women. Secondhand smoke exposure at home was associated with depressive symptoms in a dose-response manner.

A multifactoral analysis of 1452 patients for smoking sensation. An outpatient lab experience

Smoking habit is held responsible for several respiratory and metabolic diseases. Data from 1452 patients were recorded from our outpatient laboratory. The following parameters were recorded within several follow ups of our patients; smoking habit, respiratory functions, smoking cessation questionnaires, and administered drugs. The treatment administered to smokers throughout the period of inspection seems to also have a significant effect on dependence. In fact, varelicline causes a 50% reduction in smoking dependence in regards to nicotine substitutes (odds ratio: 0.48 (0.31-0,74), p=0.001) so displaying a substantial preponderance on the choice to fight smoking dependence.