Young adults may be more vulnerable to nicotine addiction than the middle-aged

People in their late teens and early 20s may be more sensitive to nicotine and more susceptible to nicotine addiction than middle-aged adults, according to a new study in mice from researchers in the Penn State Department of Biobehavioral Health. The results provide evidence that the effects of drugs on the body—both medication and misused substances—change over the lifespan in ways that clinicians and researchers need to consider when developing and prescribing treatments, the researchers said.