Varios

PSICOPATOLOGÍA Y USO DE TABACO

EN ESTUDIANTES DE SECUNDARIA*

Ma. Del Carmen Lara Muñoz1,2, Teresita Romero Ogawa1, Héctor Foncerrada1,
Clementina Rebollo1, Julián Aguilar Cortesano1,3

SUMMARY
When we talk about drugs, we usually think about illicit substances. However some substances apparently innocuous such as
caffeine and other legal ones like tobacco and alcohol, are considered asabuse substances.
Nicotine has not been studied as extensively as other drugs.
It is known that the pharmacological and behavioural processes that determine the addiction to nicotine are similar to
those that determine the addiction to other drugs such as cocaine
or heroine.
The main adverse effect of nicotine is death. According to the
Global Burden of Disease study of the World HealthOrganization, the World Bank, and Harvard University, in 2020, tobacco
will be the first individual cause of death in the world even over
AIDS. Nicotine dependence can appear at any age, though it
generally begins during adolescence, and it acts on the brain
mechanisms of reward, indirectly by endogenous opioid activity
and directly by dopaminergic pathways.
In the researches on drugsconsumption among adolescents
conducted in Mexico City during 1989, 1991 and 1993, it was
observed that tobacco consumption has increased lightly but systematically, from 4.8% to 4.2%. The percentage of current users
(in the last month) is 21.9%. At junior high school level it is
13.7%, and at high school level 34.4%.
Attention Deficit Disorder With Hyperactivity (ADDH).
Altough the relationshipbetween ADDH and drugs consumption has been recognized none of the studies conducted in our
country has included this variable.
ADDH is a disorder with a frequency of 1.7% to 18.9%. The
difference between the reported percentages is attributed to the
fact that definitions and methods used in the studies are not the
same.
When the disorder is not treated, there is usually a gradual
accumulationof adverse processes that increase the risk of pathology.
The relationship between ADDH and drug consumption is
complex. In a study of adolescents who received treatment for
drug abuse, it was observed that 50% of them met the criteria for
ADDH. As well, this disorder was a bad prognosis factor, either
to the addiction evolution and its treatment.

Another complex relationship is the onebetween ADDH and
cigarette smoking. In a study conducted among adult smokers, the
subjects with ADDH had an earlier onset of the tobacco addiction, compared to those who did not had ADDH. This finding
was confirmed by Milberger, who in a four years follow up study,
discovered that ADDH is a significant predictor on the early
tobacco consumption.
ADDH can be considered as a risk factor indeveloping other
addictions.
Although the relationship between ADDH and drug consumption has been studied, the reviewed researches show up some
limitations :
• Only clinical samples have been studied.
• Most of the follow up studies have included just male individuals with ADDH.
• In our country the effect of the clinical variables on drugs use
have not been studied.
In ADDH as well as in drugconsumption, it has been observed
a remarkable influence of cultural variables, this emphasize the
need of evaluating both problems in our country.
The following study was conducted under the hypothesis that
ADDH and general pathology symptoms are higher among adolescents that have consumed tobacco than those who have not.
Material and methods
A comparative, cross-sectional survey ofadolescent with and
without tobacco usage was performed. Fifteen junior high schools
in Puebla City were randomly selected. First year junior high
school students who agreed to answer the questionnaires were
included.
The studied variables were: symptoms of ADDH and general
psychopathology symptoms.
ADDH symptoms were dimensionally evaluated with the
Conners-Wells Self Report Scale (long...