Researchers at Baylor University have found an association between exposure to nicotine during adolescence and difficulty withdrawing from alcohol as an adult.

• Dr. Jim Diaz-Granados and his colleagues exposed some laboratory animals to nicotine, some to alcohol and nicotine, and others just to salt solutions when they were "teenagers."
• When the animals became adults, all were exposed to alcohol.
  
• Then the researchers monitored their withdrawal symptoms from alcohol.
  
• The ones were exposed to nicotine only had the most severe symptoms; the other two groups experienced about the same level of severity of symptoms.

Dr. Diaz-Granados believes that his study "provides evidence that the developing adolescent brain is susceptible to the actions of nicotine and the effects of early exposure can result in changes seen in adulthood." One effect might be increased alcohol withdrawal-related hyperexcitability.

The study appeared in the journal Alcohol.

Labels: tobacco use, smoking, withdrawal

Posted By: Aspen/CRC