Alcohol-related disorders: adolescent smokers at greater risk than other

Adolescent smokers present a higher risk of developing alcohol-related problems compared to adolescents non-smokers, possibly because of a higher vulnerability to drugs, suggests a study published in the journal "Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research ".

The link between tobacco consumption and that alcohol has long been known in popular belief and has been confirmed in clinical studies. However, it is not clear whether smokers have a higher risk of alcohol-related problems due to greater vulnerability to addiction or just due to a higher consumption of alcohol.

To resolve this issue, Richard Grucza Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Washington University (St. Louis, USA), and colleagues conducted a study of 74,836 adolescents and young adults, aged 12 to 20 years. The volunteers underwent psychiatric tests alcohol dependence, reported alcohol consumption the last 30 days and consumption of cigarettes in the past year.

According to their results, smokers (16%) have consumed higher amounts of alcohol than non-smokers. But they also showed a 4.5 times higher risk of developing alcohol-related problems compared to non-smokers consuming the same amount of alcohol. This effect was particularly true among younger adolescents. "For example, among adolescent smokers, aged between 15 and 17 years, who consumed less than eight glasses of alcoholic beverage per month, more than 20% experienced problems associated with alcohol against only 5% among non-smokers with similar consumption, "said lead author of the study in a statement released by the university online.

"It seems that smoking makes the adolescent brain more vulnerable to other addictive products," offers Richard Grucza. "Such studies are sounding the alarm especially to those who still consider tolerable smoking among young people," said Kevin Chen, associated with the University of Maryland professor in the press.

These results confirm the increased vulnerability to alcohol-related disorders among adolescent smokers, compared to non-smokers consuming the same amount of alcohol, the authors conclude