Teens need to quit smoking or risk depression – study

A new study has revealed that smoking could lead to increased depression in teenagers.

Many teenagers believe that smoking helps combat stress and depression, but this is not the case. In fact, experts believe that smoking may cause many teens to become more depressed.

The study was conducted in Canada by experts from the University of Montreal and the University of Toronto, and the findings were published in the journal Addictive Behaviours. The study team looked at 662 teenagers from high schools in the nation.

The participants were asked to answer 20 questions about their use of tobacco to improve their moods. The teenagers were separated in to 3 categories which were non-smokers, teens who smoked for the sake of smoking, and teens who smoked in order to improve their moods.

“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,” said lead author Michael Chaiton.

The teens’ depressive symptoms were assessed with the help of a scale determined by how often they felt sad, unhappy, or depressed. They were also asked how about other aspects of their lives, such as how often they felt nervous, tense, or worried, as well as their sleeping habits and how often they felt too tired to do certain things.

“Smokers who used cigarettes as mood enhancers had higher risks of elevated depressive symptoms than teens who had never smoked” said co-author of the study, Jennifer O’Loughlin, who is a professor at the University of Montreal Department of Social and Preventive Medicine.

These recent findings offer even more reason for teenagers to quit smoking. Smoking rates amongst adults in the UK appear to be moving in the right direction. Thanks to the smoking ban and improved smoking treatments such as Champix, a record amount of people were able to kick the habit and stop smoking last year.

Improved smoking cessation schemes are needed for teenagers who often don’t know how to get the help to help quit smoking.