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Teens who vape more likely to have poor mental health, new report shows

Geo, wearing hi-vis, looking at the camera with a neutral expression
Geo first started using vapes when he was 13. (ABC News: Brendan Esposito)

In short:

A study of 5,000 students has found teenagers who vape are more likely to have poor mental health.

Experts say being curious with teenagers can help open conversations about vaping and teaching life coping skills may also assist.

What’s next?

Researchers will follow up with survey participants in three years.

For Geo, the rush he gets from vaping is “euphoric”. The 17-year-old apprentice electrician started vaping at 13 after a short period of smoking cigarettes.

“Everyone around me was doing it so, definitely the peer pressure side of it, also [they’re] cheaper than darts, a lot cheaper,” he said. “I love it to be honest, just the effect it has on me. “I can focus better, I can concentrate more.”

Geo blowing vape towards the camera
Geo said he feels “stressed” and “anxious” when he does not vape for a period of time.

But he thinks there is probably a link between his vaping and mental health.

“The only time I notice it on my mental [health] is when I’m without it for a certain amount of time,” he said.

“It makes me stressed, anxious, like I need it, like there’s something missing.”

Depressed teens twice as likely to vape

The Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use paper, published today in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, found teenagers who vape were more likely to have poor mental health.

The survey of more than 5,000 year 7 and 8 students across three states is the most comprehensive data on e-cigarette use and mental health in early adolescents in Australia.

Chief Investigator associate professor Emily Stockings said while the survey found only 8 per cent of respondents had used a vape, those with symptoms of severe depression were twice as likely to use e-cigarettes.

“For those who had low wellbeing, they were 100 per cent more likely to vape and those with high stress were 74 per cent more likely to vape,” she said.

The study found that almost 22 per cent of the teenagers surveyed had moderate to severe depression, 20 per cent had moderate to severe anxiety and one third had low wellbeing.

“So, this is a mentally not very well population,” she said.

An image of a teenager's hand holding a vape.
Researchers surveyed 5,000 teenagers about their vape use. (ABC News: Rachel Carbonell)

Does vaping cause poor mental health or does poor mental health lead to vaping?

The study showed a correlation between the two, but did not establish a causal link.

Associate Professor Stockings said evidence from previous studies suggested it was likely to be “bi-directional”.

“There’s studies that have shown that depression causes vaping and there’s been studies that show vaping causes depression,” she said.

She said it was easy to see why teenagers going through mental health struggles were attracted to vaping with bright colours and clever marketing, but adding nicotine was a powerful combination.

“Nicotine is an incredibly effective drug on the brain … once it’s in the bloodstream it hits your brain within seconds.

“It gives you this combined feeling of reduced anxiety … but also a little bit of a buzz because of the stimulant effect.”

Understanding the teen brain crucial in tackling vaping

Associate Professor Stockings said the research showed mental health and vaping needed to be tackled together.

“We know that education alone, saying to someone, ‘don’t use drugs’ or ‘don’t drink’, it doesn’t work. Education alone is not sufficient,” she said.

The data is part of the largest trial of vaping prevention in Australia, which aims to test whether teenagers are less likely to take up vaping if they’re given life coping skills early on in the classroom.

It will follow up with survey participants in three years.

“What we think is going to be helpful in this age group, what we’ve seen and had evidence for [is]… we give them skills training, coping skills, mechanisms, telling them how you can help a friend, how you can identify when you’re not doing well, how to seek help effectively,” she said.

Professor of youth mental health and neurobiology at the University of Sunshine Coast Dan Hermens said understanding the teenage brain, which is wired to “look for novelty”, was critical.

“[It] has an exaggerated response to rewarding behaviours, usually they’re described as risk-taking things,” he said.

One of the ways the brain responds is to release dopamine, the feel-good hormone, with research suggesting it can be two to seven times higher in adolescents in response to reward-seeking behaviour.

He said because vaping often involved friends, risk taking and nicotine, it was a “perfect storm”.

“The adolescent brain, we know from a whole range of research, has increased dopamine response to a whole range of behaviours,” he said.

“When you add a quite addictive substance like nicotine the response in terms of dopamine is even greater.”

Dan Hermens standing in front of a wall of paintings of brains
Professor of youth mental health and neurobiology at the University of Sunshine Coast Dan Hermens said understanding the teenage brain was essential. (Supplied)

Professor Hermens said the adolescent brain was going through an important biological process.

“…The adolescent brain benefits from new experiences as part of adolescent development and preparing to become an adult,” he said.

“It’s arguably the most dynamic time in our lives in terms of brain changes and that comes with increased vulnerability.”

Professor Hermens said while concerns about vaping were often linked to harmful chemicals, nicotine alone could change the brain’s “function and activity”.

“By stimulating the brain to release dopamine, if it’s done over a period of time, it changes the way the brain responds to rewarding things,” he said.

Neuroscientists believe it can then become more difficult to do things without nicotine and inhibit the same response from healthier activities.

Teenager quits after health concerns

Emeliya, 18, first tried vaping a year ago when she was at a friend’s birthday party. “They were all socially doing it … so, I just joined in,” she said. Initially she did not like it, but soon noticed a change.

A hand holding a pink vape
The study is the most recent and comprehensive data on e-cigarette use and mental health in younger teenagers. (ABC News: Rachel Carbonell)

“I felt like I was less stressed after taking a chuff,” she said.

She worried about the health impacts and recently decided to quit.

“You could see in my face I was breaking out, like I felt quite sick after, I had bad breath. It was really gross,” she said.

“I feel so much better not vaping … if I’m anxious or stressed about something, I’ll find something else to let my stress out, instead of literally, sucking it in.

“I feel like I’m able to get out and sit in the sun … and just be able to breathe normally without having to have a smoke.”

Less shame, more curiosity

Chief Investigator Emily Stockings said while she hoped banning vapes would eventually make it less socially acceptable, there’s a lot more that can be done.

For parents and carers, associate professor Stockings said being curious with teenagers about why they vape and how it made them feel was more likely to help than shame.

“We’re good at banning things, we’re good at playing by the rules and it just makes people be quiet if they’re engaging in these behaviours, it just becomes a hidden behaviour as opposed to one that they’re willing to talk about and seek help for,” she said.

Professor Hermens agreed.

His tip was to talk to teenagers about how their brains worked as opposed to bad behaviours.

“It’s important to understand as parents and teachers that there’s a reason why adolescents like … doing different things and that includes substance use,” he said.

“It’s important to understand that kind of biology, but it’s complicated because adolescents are … speaking like older people.

What do you want to know more about when it comes to raising and supporting teens? 

“They’re becoming more self aware, they’re becoming more insightful.”

He said adults needed to help young people figure out what they could be focusing on instead, with one possible solution through helping young people find a natural buzz through healthier risk taking.

“I guess a whole range of things from … roller coaster rides to doing adventurous things with your friends, like outdoors, you know jumping into the water, it’s mostly safe but there’s a little bit of risk, doing a school play, that’s a social risk,” he said.

Source: ABC

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