Teen cigarette smoking increases chance of nicotine addiction: UCLA

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- We've all heard the younger you start smoking, the harder it is to quit. UCLA researchers looked deep into the brains of young smokers to find out why. They discovered early exposure to nicotine may be linked to changes in a key part of the brain.

When a teen tries her first cigarette, it's usually just an experiment. But UCLA researchers say starting young is a terrible time to start.

"The reason is that the brain is growing and developing throughout the late teenage years and the early 20s," said Dr. Edythe London, UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience.

London and her colleagues looked at the brains of about 40 16- to 20-year-olds. They found the brains of young smokers may experience changes in a structure of the brain called the insula.

"It has a major role in decision-making," said London.

The insulas of young smokers who had the most nicotine dependence appeared to be thinner. Worse, these changes can occur even with a relatively short smoking history.

"The highest incidence of cigarette smoking is in young people, people that are 18 to 25 years old," said London.

Researchers say this finding might also help them understand why smoking when you're young can make it so much harder to quit.

"I can say that people who start later in life, after they are in their 20s have an easier time quitting than people that start earlier," said London.

London says the study adds to the growing research that shows smoking during adolescence and early adulthood produces neurobiological changes that may cause severe nicotine dependence into adulthood.

The report appears in the online edition of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology. Funding for the study was provided by Philip Morris USA, but the company did not have any input into the design of the study or how it's interpreted.