The four-year study, conducted with 1,246 sixth-grade students (at the start of the study) from Massachusetts—was published in the July 2007 issue of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.

The researchers, lead by Joseph R. DiFranza, Univerity of Massachusetts Medical School (Worchester), also found that adolescents who smoke only a few cigarettes each month experience withdrawal symptoms from nicotine when stopping even for a short period of time. They also stated that as few as seven cigarettes per month could addict 50% of young people.

DiFranza states, “The important lesson here is that youth have all the same symptoms of nicotine addiction as adults do, even though they may be smoking only a few cigarettes per month.”

The article, titled “Symptoms of Tobacco Dependence After Brief Intermittent Use”, also included the following researchers: Judith A. Savageau, Kenneth Fletcher, Jennifer O’Loughlin, Lori Pbert, Judith K. Ockene, Ann D. McNeill, Jennifer Hazelton, Karen Friedman, Gretchen Dussault, Connie Wood, Robert J. Wellman.

The abstract of the article appears at: http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/161/7/704.

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