Difficult Childhood Makes Smoking As an Adult More Likely.OAKLAND, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--Nov. 2, 1999-- The decline in smoking in recent years has leveled off, and research shows doctors may need to pay attention to an underlying cause other than nicotine. The likelihood that you will smoke cigarettes as an adult may be connected with being abused as a child or having an absent parent because of divorce, emotional distance, or imprisonment Imprisonment See also Isolation. Alcatraz Island former federal maximum security penitentiary, near San Francisco; “escapeproof.” [Am. Hist.: Flexner, 218] Altmark, the German prison ship in World War II. [Br. Hist. . Vincent J. Felitti, M.D. practices medicine with the Department of Preventive Medicine preventive medicine, branch of medicine dealing with the prevention of disease and the maintenance of good health practices. Until recently preventive medicine was largely the domain of the U.S. at Kaiser Permanente's San Diego medical center. Dr. Felitti is a co-author on a new study, with researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Emory University in Atlanta, featured in this week's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association is an international peer-reviewed general medical journal, published 48 times per year by the American Medical Association. JAMA is the most widely circulated medical journal in the world. (JAMA JAMA abbr. Journal of the American Medical Association ). "The likelihood that a person will smoke as an adult goes up with exposure to these 'adverse childhood experiences,'" Felitti says. "The more adverse experiences someone has as a child, the more likely they will smoke -- and smoke more heavily -- as an adult. This study suggests that addiction to nicotine may not be the critical factor in persistent smoking, and that more attention must be paid to the long shadow cast by the adverse childhood experiences we studied. In other words Adv. 1. in other words - otherwise stated; "in other words, we are broke" put differently , someone who smokes may be self-medicating with nicotine to treat past emotional trauma, and we -- as clinicians -- should treat the underlying cause and not just the symptom." The authors surveyed adults who were patients of Kaiser Permanente in San Diego, California “San Diego” redirects here. For other uses, see San Diego (disambiguation). San Diego is a coastal Southern California city located in the southwestern corner of the continental United States. As of 2006, the city has a population of 1,256,951. about their childhood experiences. Patients were asked about emotional, physical and sexual abuse; about whether they witnessed spousal abuse, whether their parents had been separated or divorced, and whether a member of the household had been a substance abuser, mentally ill, or incarcerated incarcerated /in·car·cer·at·ed/ (in-kahr´ser-at?ed) imprisoned; constricted; subjected to incarceration. in·car·cer·at·ed adj. Confined or trapped, as a hernia. . Among people who said none of those events had happened during their childhoods, 42% had ever smoked, past or present. 60% percent of respondents who reported 5 adverse events in their childhood or more reported ever smoking cigarettes. Dr. Felitti is available for broadcast and print interviews. Contact National Media Relations at 510/271-5826. |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion