Even the first cigarette is addictive

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Once is not a time? Apparently this does not apply to cigarettes. For every five people who reach for the smoldering stick for the first time, three become addicted to nicotine.

Nicotine is often underestimated. In fact, the cytotoxin is a drug with a high potential for addiction. This is again confirmed by a British study. The researchers led by Peter Hadjek from Queen Mary University in London evaluated data from eight studies from Great Britain, the USA, New Zealand and Australia.

From relaxation to addiction

Of the more than 215,000 respondents, around 60 percent said they had smoked a cigarette at least once in their life. Almost 70 percent of these in turn said that in the end they had at least temporarily picked up a cigarette every day.

"The transition from experimenting to daily consumption is a central aspect of addiction development," says study author Hadjek. An activity that is initially relaxing eventually becomes an obsessive-compulsive need.

A surprising number of them get stuck

"The conversion rate from first-time to daily smoker is surprisingly high," says the scientist. This underlines the importance of preventing the first experiment with cigarettes.

The researchers suspect that the decline in the number of non-smokers in the last 20 years is partly due to the fact that adolescents now try cigarettes much less often than in the past. “Only 19 percent of 11 to 15 year olds have smoked a cigarette before. This is good news: we are on the right track. "

Higher risk of addiction than cocaine

Earlier research had shown that people who try cigarettes are significantly more likely to become addicted than those who experiment with cocaine. A comparatively low proportion of 21 percent of “first-time offenders” is dependent on the latter, according to the study “National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions” from 2011.

However, the availability of the drug and social acceptance also play a central role in the development of addiction - and both are many times higher for legal drugs than for prohibited ones.

However, the addictive potential of alcohol, which is also a legal drug, is significantly lower than that of cigarettes: 23 percent of all people who have ever drunk alcohol become alcohol-dependent.

Less addiction to e-cigarettes

The fact that the effect of nicotine is not solely responsible for the risk of addiction from cigarettes is also shown by the fact that significantly fewer non-smokers who try an e-cigarette, at some point vape every day. "The presence of nicotine is clearly not the whole story," says Hadjek.

Mental disorders promote addiction

Whether nicotine, alcohol or illegal drugs: the most decisive factor in the development of addiction is emotional instability. The people most at risk of becoming dependent are people who have mental health problems. Depression, anxiety disorders and personality disorders massively promote the development of addiction. Treating such mental disorders in good time also prevents addictions and is crucial to freeing oneself from an addiction.

Nicotine - a versatile kick in the brain

Nicotine works extremely quickly. Inhaled, it reaches the reward center in the brain within a few seconds. There it stimulates the formation of the messenger substance dopamine, which creates a feeling of wellbeing and has a calming effect. At the same time, nicotine also has an activating effect in areas of the brain that are responsible for alertness and alertness.

According to the "Study on the Health of Adults in Germany (DEGS1)", around 30 percent of adults smoke in Germany, which is around 20 million people.

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