MA: RESEARCHER SEEKS 1,200 6TH-GRADERS

Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Date: Wednesday, January 9, 2002
Author: Matthew Bruun / Telegram & Gazette Staff
URL: here

Researchers studying nicotine addiction are looking for 1,200 sixth-graders
for a three-year study they hope will answer such questions as why some
people get addicted to smoking while others do not.

Dr. Joseph R. DiFranza, professor of family medicine at the University of
Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, said the Development and
Assessment of Nicotine Dependence in Youths -- or DANDY -- study is the
continuation of a project that began four years ago.

That study involved 700 seventh-graders from Fitchburg and Leominster, all
of whom were interviewed three times a year for three years.

"The first DANDY study completely overturned notions about how nicotine
dependence begins," Dr. DiFranza said. "We used to think that it took years
and thousands of cigarettes for kids to get hooked. The DANDY study taught us that it can take only a few days and a few cigarettes for nicotine
addiction to start."

The results of that study led to a grant from the National Institute on
Drug Abuse for an expanded study.

"The first DANDY study taught us that most kids who try tobacco get hooked very quickly, but we also noticed that some kids who used tobacco never got hooked at all," Dr. DiFranza said. "By comparing kids who get hooked quickly to those who never get hooked, we may be able to figure out what makes some people vulnerable to addiction." . .

Smokers who feel nauseated the first time they try a cigarette, he added,
are more likely to become addicted. "We think they might be more sensitive
to nicotine," he said. "What we found in our previous survey was girls
developed a dependence far quicker than boys, and we're trying to determine why that is."

The researchers already have begun sending letters to parents of
sixth-graders in Fitchburg, Leominster and Clinton, seeking permission to
include their children in the study.