According to the results of a new study, young adults may be more susceptible to the addictive effects of nicotine. The research, carried out by scientists at the Pennsylvania State University, showed the impact of drugs on the body, including both medication and misused substances, can significantly change over the lifespan.
Specifically, the research was carried out in mice and showed that nicotine reduces the body temperature of young adult mice faster and reduces their movement more significantly compared to middle-aged mice. While both young adult and middle-aged mice demonstrated decreased movement after receiving nicotine, this effect was more pronounced in young adults. According to the study authors, these findings suggest that young adult mice experienced the effects of nicotine more intensely.
“Sometimes, people think of development as something that occurs until we reach a certain age — like 18 or 25 — and then stops,” said Dr. Thomas Gould, Professor at Department of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State and senior author of the study, in a press release. “But people continue to develop and change across their entire lifespan, and this affects how our bodies respond to medications and other chemicals, including nicotine. This research adds one piece to the puzzle of all the factors — age, biological sex, genetics and many others — needed to create effective medical treatments and policies for all people.”
The observed decreased movement and body temperature demonstrate the activation of the brain’s cholinergic system of neurotransmission in the brain and body. Despite differences between mice and humans, they have similar biological and genetic substrates for nicotine and other drugs, said Dr. Gould. “A human’s body temperature may not drop like a mouse’s, but the activation of the cholinergic system is consistent across mammals,” Dr. Gould added. “The differential activation among younger and older research subjects illustrates the point of the study: We should not automatically approach smoking prevention or cessation for young adults and middle-aged adults in the same way.”
The researchers suggested that future similar studies are needed to design effective interventions to help people quit nicotine, since currently, fewer than 10% of attempts to quit smoking succeed, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“The results demonstrate that young adults are more susceptible to the impact of nicotine,” said Carlos Nova, the study’s first author, in a press release. “This puts them at greater risk for developing addiction to the drug, which has implications for both prevention programs and treatments. The legal age to buy tobacco products is 21, but the risk for a 21-year-old individual is higher than it is for a 45-year-old. We need to understand how nicotine affects people based on their individual characteristics so that we can better prevent smoking and help people quit.”
