Teen Smoking and the Blues

Smoking increases an adolescent's susceptibility to depression, according to a study published in the April issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

UAB researchers Michael Windle, Ph.D., and Rebecca Windle, M.S.W., found that teenagers who smoked 20 or more cigarettes every day for six months were likely to have more depressive symptoms for the year and a half they were followed than the teenagers who reported smoking less. It could be that teenagers with high levels of depression significantly increase cigarette smoking in an attempt to alleviate their depressive symptoms, said the authors.

"But this [smoking] actually can inhibit the re-uptake of dopamine, one of the neurotransmitters implicated in causing depression when low levels exist in the brain," they said.

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