Previous research had shown that addiction to smoking has a genetic component. Now, a study by the University of Massachusetts, Harvard University, and the University of London has determined that adolescents can become addicted to nicotine more quickly because their brains are still developing.

Having studied 679 seventh-grade students for 30 months, the researchers found that it only took a few cigarettes a day for teens to become addicted. For those who smoked occasionally, it only took an average of three weeks to become dependent.

"I expected that some kids would get hooked quickly, but I thought that the average kid would have to smoke for a few years to get hooked," said study author Dr. Joseph DiFranza of the University of Massachusetts. "I thought that kids who got hooked quickly would be the exception to the rule. As it turned out, the kids who did not get hooked quickly were the exception."

The research also confirmed that there is a genetic component that makes people predisposed to addiction. "For some of the kids it was love at first sight. They had one cigarette and they knew it was something they were going to do for the rest of their lives," DiFranza said. "For some people, nicotine is just what they have been waiting for."

The study's findings are published in the September 2002 issue of the journal Tobacco Control.

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