Tobacco Use in Adolescence Tied to Paranoia, Due Largely to Shared Genetic Influences

Summary: Researchers have discovered a link between teenage tobacco use and an increased risk of psychotic experiences, such as paranoia and hallucinations. They report this may be due, in part, to some shared genetic influences.

Source: Elsevier.

Paranoia is associated with regular tobacco smoking in adolescents after accounting for other factors like cannabis use, sleep disturbances and stressful life events, reports a study recently published to the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (JAACAP). The study also provides novel insights about the underlying causes of the association.

The authors found that the co-occurrence of paranoia with tobacco use was largely explained by genetic influences. Similar results for other types of psychotic experiences were also reported, including having hallucinations and disorganized thinking, which were also associated with tobacco use in teenagers.

“While the links between drugs such as cannabis, paranoia and hallucinations have been reported before, much less is known about the relationship between tobacco use and mental health problems,” said senior author Angelica Ronald, Professor of Psychology and Genetics at Birkbeck, University of London, UK. “In particular, we do not really know why tobacco use and mental health problems often co-occur.

“In these new findings from our lab, we show that using tobacco is to some degree heritable and that some of the same genetic influences on using tobacco also play a role in experiences such as feeling paranoid. It will be exciting to pursue this finding further to unpack the mechanisms that lead to this association.”

The findings are based on the Twins Early Development Study, a large sample of twins born in England and Wales between 1994- 1996.

More than 3,700 adolescents twin pairs took part in this study when they were aged 16. Of these, 31.4 percent reported smoking cigarettes within the past year, with 12.1 percent of the sample identifying as occasional smokers and 5.2 percent as regular smokers.

Adolescents reported on their paranoia and other experiences such as having hallucinations and disorganized thinking, while their parents reported on issues such as a lack of motivation, social withdrawal, and their teenager seeming emotionally flat. These types of psychotic experiences and behaviors are common in adolescence and there is significant variability in how severe they are across individuals.

The researchers found that the frequency of adolescent cigarette smoking was associated with having experiences such as paranoia, with regular smokers having more psychotic symptoms and experiences than non-smokers and occasional smokers. The associations remained even after accounting for several other possible factors such as gender, socio-economic status, cannabis use, prenatal maternal smoking, sleep disturbances and stressful life events.

a young girl
The authors found that the co-occurrence of paranoia with tobacco use was largely explained by genetic influences. Similar results for other types of psychotic experiences were also reported, including having hallucinations and disorganized thinking, which were also associated with tobacco use in teenagers. NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.

Environmental influences accounted for about two thirds of the differences in adolescent smoking behavior, and a third of the differences were due to genetic influences.

The authors urge caution in interpreting the findings. They note that the reported association between tobacco use and psychotic experiences was modest and that their study does not show whether tobacco use causes or worsens psychotic symptoms and experiences, only that they are associated with one another. Nevertheless, the findings could be important because, if confirmed, tobacco use could be a modifiable risk factor for psychosis. Adolescence is an important stage of life when the brain is still developing and individuals can be vulnerable to mental health problems including psychosis. As such, understanding factors related to tobacco use is important and can contribute to changes in public policy..

About this neuroscience research article

Professor Angelica Ronald is a Professor of Psychology and Genetics in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London. This research was funded by the Medical Research Council and the Camara-Rijvers David Studentship.

Source: Mary Billingsley – Elsevier
Publisher: Organized by NeuroscienceNews.com.
Image Source: NeuroscienceNews.com image is in the public domain.
Original Research: Open access research for “A Twin Study on the Association Between Psychotic Experiences and Tobacco Use During Adolescence” by Wikus Barkhuizen, MSc, Mark J. Taylor, PhD, Daniel Freeman, PhD, DClinPsy, and Angelica Ronald in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Published January 23 2019.
doi:10.1016/j.jaac.2018.06.037

Cite This NeuroscienceNews.com Article

[cbtabs][cbtab title=”MLA”]Elsevier”Tobacco Use in Adolescence Tied to Paranoia, Due Largely to Shared Genetic Influences.” NeuroscienceNews. NeuroscienceNews, 25 January 2019.
<https://neurosciencenews.com/teen-tobacco-paranoia-genetics-10641/>.[/cbtab][cbtab title=”APA”]Elsevier(2019, January 25). Tobacco Use in Adolescence Tied to Paranoia, Due Largely to Shared Genetic Influences. NeuroscienceNews. Retrieved January 25, 2019 from https://neurosciencenews.com/teen-tobacco-paranoia-genetics-10641/[/cbtab][cbtab title=”Chicago”]Elsevier”Tobacco Use in Adolescence Tied to Paranoia, Due Largely to Shared Genetic Influences.” https://neurosciencenews.com/teen-tobacco-paranoia-genetics-10641/ (accessed January 25, 2019).[/cbtab][/cbtabs]


Abstract

A Twin Study on the Association Between Psychotic Experiences and Tobacco Use During Adolescence

Objective
Psychotic experiences (PE) are dimensional phenomena in the general population that resemble psychotic symptoms, such as paranoia and hallucinations. This is the first twin study to explore the degree to which tobacco use and PE share genetic or environmental influences. Previous studies on the association between adolescent tobacco use and PE have not considered PE dimensionally, included negative symptoms, or accounted for confounding by sleep disturbance and stressful life events.

Method
An unselected adolescent twin sample (N = 3,787 pairs; mean age = 16.16 years) reported on PE (paranoia, hallucinations, cognitive disorganization, grandiosity, and anhedonia) and regularity of tobacco use. Parents rated the twins’ negative symptoms. Regression analyses were conducted while adjusted for sociodemographic characteristics, prenatal maternal smoking, cannabis use, sleep disturbance, and stressful life events. Bivariate twin modeling was used to estimate the degree of genetic and common and unique environmental influences shared between tobacco use and PE.

Results
Regular smokers were significantly more likely to experience paranoia, hallucinations, cognitive disorganization, and negative symptoms (β = 0.17−0.34), but not grandiosity or anhedonia, than nonsmokers, after adjustment for confounders. Paranoia, hallucinations, and cognitive disorganization correlated ≥0.15 with tobacco use (r = 0.15−0.21, all p < .001). Significant genetic correlations (rA=0.37−0.45) were found. Genetic influences accounted for most of the association between tobacco use and paranoia (84%) and cognitive disorganization (81%). Familial influences accounted for 80% of the association between tobacco use and hallucinations. Conclusion Tobacco use and PE during adolescence were associated after adjustment for confounders. They appear to co-occur largely because of shared genetic influences. [divider]Feel free to share this Neuroscience News.[/divider]

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