Our subject group truly represents early smokers. Adult data show that the faster metabolizers will compensate by smoking a greater number of cigarettes. Our study showed no correlation yet between the number of cigarettes and the metabolic rate suggesting that the adolescents had not yet started regulating the level of nicotine in their bodies. The lack of association between the level of cigarette consumption and the metabolic ratio also supports the notion that it is the metabolic rate and not the number of cigarettes in the early stages of nicotine addiction that leads to individual differences in withdrawal symptoms.
