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Study sparks hope for teens seeking to quit
Tuesday, May 01, 2001 By Deborah Mendenhall, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
Jason Scott's mother smokes. His father smokes. So does his grandmother and most of his aunts and uncles. And so when his step-brother handed him a cigarette when he was 13 years old, Jason Scott began smoking, too.
"I started because nearly everyone in my family smokes," he said. "I wanted to try it and see what the big deal was."
The big deal was, he got hooked.
Off and on, he's tried to stop. As of March 15, at age 18, Jason Scott's a quitter.
He attributes his success to a smoking cessation study for teen-agers that's being conducted by Tahniat Syed, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.
After graduating from high school in Kirksville, Mo., Scott moved here to study film-making at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. He saw Syed's flyer on a bulletin board recruiting 13- to 19-year-olds who wanted to quit smoking, and he signed up immediately.
"I was ready," Scott said. "I wanted to quit."
The smoking cessation study is testing the effectiveness of a medication called Zyban, previously used as an anti-depressant for adults and sold under another brand name. Doctors who prescribed it discovered an unusual side effect: patients lost their craving for nicotine.
"The exact mechanism is not known, but it's thought to affect the part of the brain that controls craving," Syed said.
She is looking for 64 participants and so far, nine have enrolled.
"This is clearly a generation at risk, and the numbers are increasing," Syed said.
The percentage of teen-age smokers rose from 28 percent to 35 percent among all racial and ethnic groups from 1991 to 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, she said. In Pennsylvania, 40 percent of high school seniors smoked, compared with 34 percent nationally, according to 1997 statistics.
"We don't have the exact rates, but the numbers are estimated to be higher for Allegheny County teen-agers," she said.
Half the control group will receive Zyban, half will receive a placebo and everyone will receive counseling based on CDC's guidelines.
Zyban's most common side effects are runny nose, dry mouth, difficulty sleeping and seizures, so teens with seizure disorders won't be able to participate, she said. Participants will be given a small stipend.
The medication does not contain nicotine, so teens may continue smoking until their quit date, which is scheduled two to three weeks into the program. The study will also determine teen-ager's challenges to quitting and devise solutions.
Scott doesn't know whether he received Zyban or the placebo. He said he began the study while smoking a pack a day, and soon had cut down to a less than a half pack a day without realizing it.
About three weeks into the program his smoking had dwindled to one cigarette a day. When he ran out of cigarettes, he bought one more pack and when he smoked the last one, he quit.
Counseling helped him identify times he was vulnerable to smoking, such as after meals and before he went to bed. Scott said this helped him know when he had to use maximum willpower and concentrate on quitting.
"Teens experience nicotine addiction just like adults do," Syed said. "They have the same kind of cravings and withdrawal symptoms, but there is not a lot of help for them."
Some 77 percent of adult smokers began before the age of 20. Many teen-agers have told Syed that they want to quit. But quitting is as hard for teens as it is for adults and teens have fewer resources available to them.
"It's also easy for teens to walk into stores and buy cigarettes, even though sales to minors are illegal," Syed said.
Although his roommate is a smoker, Scott has no desire to smoke anymore.
Scott hopes to be a Hollywood movie maker one day. He's seen his share of glamorous smokers on the big screen. But he thinks when it's his turn, smokers will be portrayed differently.
"I'll probably use smoking with a villainous character," he said. "Seeing the good guy light up is not a good thing."
The study is funded by Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Ambulatory Pediatrics Association. Teens interested in participating should call Syed at 412-692-5527.
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