Health & Medicine
Could E-Cigarettes Influence Drug Use?
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Sep 04, 2014 05:19 PM EDT
The verdict's still out on whether or not electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are completely safe.
A new study looks at how they could even be considered a gateway drug, in some instances.
Researchers analyzed 2004 epidemiologic data from a large, longitudinal sample that suggests that nicotine also primes human brains to respond to cocaine. Findings also showed that the same reward centers stimulated in the brain by e-cigarette use could also increase the same risk for other drug addictions.
"E-cigarettes have the same physiological effects on the brain and may pose the same risk of addiction to other drugs as regular cigarettes, especially in adolescence during a critical period of brain development," the researchers added, in a news release. "We don't yet know whether e-cigarettes will prove to be a gateway to the use of conventional cigarettes and illicit drugs, but that's certainly a possibility. Nicotine clearly acts as a gateway drug on the brain, and this effect is likely to occur whether the exposure comes from smoking cigarettes, passive tobacco smoke, or e-cigarettes."
To add to that, though there is no evidence, yet, that the vapor from e-cigarettes is harmful, any health risks associated with long-term use of the device are still unclear.
More information regarding the findings can be seen via the New England Journal of Medicine Science.
See Now:
NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone
©2024 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
More on SCIENCEwr
First Posted: Sep 04, 2014 05:19 PM EDT
The verdict's still out on whether or not electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are completely safe.
A new study looks at how they could even be considered a gateway drug, in some instances.
Researchers analyzed 2004 epidemiologic data from a large, longitudinal sample that suggests that nicotine also primes human brains to respond to cocaine. Findings also showed that the same reward centers stimulated in the brain by e-cigarette use could also increase the same risk for other drug addictions.
"E-cigarettes have the same physiological effects on the brain and may pose the same risk of addiction to other drugs as regular cigarettes, especially in adolescence during a critical period of brain development," the researchers added, in a news release. "We don't yet know whether e-cigarettes will prove to be a gateway to the use of conventional cigarettes and illicit drugs, but that's certainly a possibility. Nicotine clearly acts as a gateway drug on the brain, and this effect is likely to occur whether the exposure comes from smoking cigarettes, passive tobacco smoke, or e-cigarettes."
To add to that, though there is no evidence, yet, that the vapor from e-cigarettes is harmful, any health risks associated with long-term use of the device are still unclear.
More information regarding the findings can be seen via the New England Journal of Medicine Science.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone