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Teens Misusing Nicotine
Replacement Products
Excerpt
By Randy Dotinga, HealthDay
New
survey results suggest a small number of teenagers, including
non-smokers, are misusing nicotine patches and gum.
The authors of the study warn the
teens could be setting themselves up for health trouble if they
smoke and use the patch or gum at the same time or if they use
the products to maintain their nicotine levels.
But an expert on the psychology
of smoking says the students may have lied on the survey. And
even if they weren't, that doesn't mean the products are putting
them at risk, says Dr. John R. Hughes, a professor of psychiatry
at the University of Vermont.
At issue are two over-the-counter
drugs that provide nicotine boosts: gum and patches. Smokers use
both "nicotine-replacement" products to combat such
symptoms of nicotine withdrawal as anxiety, depression and insomnia.
"You don't need much nicotine
to relieve that," Hughes says. "People can get 10 percent
of the nicotine they normally get and still relieve their withdrawal
symptoms."
A third over-the-counter product,
the nicotine lozenge, became available too late to be included
in the survey.
Study co-author Dr. Karen Johnson,
vice chairwoman of the department of preventive medicine at University
of Tennessee Health Science Center, became interested in the products
during a visit to a store in Memphis.
Although federal officials wanted
to keep the products out of reach of minors, "it was out
on the counter just like aspirin," she says. "My then-7-year-old
son could have bought it."
Johnson and her colleagues launched
two studies of young people and nicotine replacement products.
Results of the first study, which analyzed use of the products
among teenagers, appear in the June issue of The Archives of
Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine. The second study, examining
buying habits, will be published later.
For the first study, researchers
surveyed 4,078 teenagers from the Memphis area during the 1998-99
school year. Five percent of the teens reported using the nicotine
patch or nicotine gum.
Nearly 40 percent of former smokers
said they used the products to help them quit. But surprisingly,
18 of those who reported having used the products -- less than
1 percent of all the students -- said they had never smoked.
"It doesn't seem like it would
be too appealing," Johnson says. "You don't get that
rapid uptake of nicotine and the jolt that a cigarette gives you.
That's a little surprising to me."
Some students said they smoked
and used the products at the same time, potentially putting them
at risk of nicotine poisoning, Johnson adds. A few "were
smokers who used the patch (during school) when they couldn't
smoke, maybe to maintain their nicotine level. That's not its
intended use," she says.
Johnson says more research needs
to be done to figure out why teens are misusing the products and
how teens could use them to quit smoking.
On the other hand, University of
Vermont professor Hughes says he's skeptical of the findings and
of the idea that misuse of the products may be worrisome.
The results are questionable because
surveys of teenagers can be unreliable, he says. In some studies,
teens have admitted using drugs that don't actually exist.
Hughes adds he knows of no medical
complications from misuse of nicotine-replacement products.
"If a (nicotine) patch made
you drive drunk and run into cars, it would be a different story.
Even if you misuse it, it doesn't cause you to have medical problems
or mental illness," he says.
The real question, he adds, is
whether the products even work in teenagers, who may not be addicted
enough to smoking to need them. "We don't know if they're
helpful to adolescents," he says.
More information
For a fact sheet on nicotine replacement
products, go to the American
Lung Association or the
American Cancer Society.
Reference
Source 101
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