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Youth Smoking Impairs Thinking, Memory
Nicotine has been shown to sharpen concentration among adults, but the opposite may be true for young smokers, according to researchers at Yale University.
A study of 41 adolescent smokers and 32 nonsmokers found that the smokers performed worse in tests of working memory, used when keeping in mind and manipulating information. Young male smokers performed especially poorly in tests of selective and divided attention, and memory was disrupted further when study subjects stopped smoking.
"Adolescent smokers were found to have impairments in accuracy of working memory performance," Jacobsen said. "These findings underscore the importance of efforts aimed at preventing smoking initiation in adolescents. They also show adolescents who are trying to quit smoking may need additional educational support."
The study was published in the Jan. 1, 2005 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry.
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