Teen smokers want to quit but often fail

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Novice teenage smokers often make repeated attempts to quit smoking soon after they start, but most are unsuccessful, according to research funded by the Canadian Cancer Society.

"Quitting is on the minds of young smokers well before full blown addiction," study leader Dr. Jennifer O'Loughlin of the University of Montreal noted in comments to Reuters Health. "Serious attempts to quit smoking begin just two and a half months after the first puff and by the time they have smoked for 21 months they have lost confidence in their ability to quit."

O'Loughlin and colleagues based their conclusions on data from 319 Montreal adolescents who provided information on their smoking habits every 3 months for 5 years. They were between the ages of 12 and 13 years old at the start of the study.

The findings, O'Loughlin said, suggest that novice smokers continue to escalate their smoking while, at the same time, they are making unsuccessful attempts to quit. "As cravings, withdrawal symptoms and tolerance grow, novice smokers begin to lose confidence in their ability to quit. After 2 years, many discovered that they smoke because they cannot quit," she said.

For the teen smokers in this study, it took about 9 months after their first puff to become monthly smokers; 19 months after their first puff to become weekly smokers; and 23 months after first lighting up to become daily smokers.

"The 1994 Surgeon General's report on youth smoking suggests that addiction does not emerge until 2 years after starting to smoke. However, our study shows that very worrisome symptoms of dependence develop much earlier," O'Loughlin noted.

More than 70 percent of the teens in the study indicated that they wanted to quit, but only 19 percent actually managed to stop smoking for at least 1 year by the end of the study. Girls were more apt than boys to indicate a desire to quit and to attempt it.

"Understanding the process leading to addiction and the concomitant desire to quit could uncover critical periods when kids might be most open to education and support," O'Loughlin said. "There is a narrow window of opportunity before full blown addiction that we are not taking into account in our prevention and cessation interventions aimed at kids."

SOURCE: American Journal of Public Health, September 2008.