Smoking Linked To Trauma

A traumatic childhood could be the reason you or someone you know started smoking, reports Correspondent Sandra Maas of CBS Station KFMB-TV in San Diego.

A study conducted by researchers at Kaiser Permanente focused on the lifestyles of more than 9,000 people in San Diego.

"We set out to document suspicions...that many of the problems we had dealing with adult medicine were the distant consequences of adverse experiences in early childhood," says lead researcher Dr. Vincent Felitti.

This study is part of a larger research project, measuring the effects of childhood trauma. Dr. Felitti believes there may also be a connection between trauma and alcoholism, eating disorders, drug abuse, promiscuity, and depression.

Many adults use nicotine as a chemical crutch to escape from the stress of traumatic memories, Dr. Felitti found.

"Nicotine is certainly a medication with psychoactive benefits. Clearly, in some, it relieves depression and anxiety, tones down anger. In others, it reduces hunger," he says.

Doctors looked at adverse experiences in childhood, including physical and sexual abuse, seeing a mother battered, living with an addict or someone with a mental illness, having a family member jailed, or enduring a parent's divorce or separation.

Researchers found that people who had at least five bad experiences as children were at least five times more likely to become smokers by age 14.

But even those who would like to quit say it's difficult to accomplish.

"I started early - I think it's an addiction. I want to quit," says smoker, Dalil Alfeerawi.

Dr. Felitti says helping a smoker kick the habit may be easier if they can get to the root of their problem.

"Most people loathe to blame this on anything, particularly their past. You see people who came from tremendously abusive households who will tell you that their parents were loving," says Dr. Felitti. "The common expression, 'Oh, they'll grow out of it,' surely is not the case here," he says.