Cigarette Smoking and Panic Attacks Among Young Adults in the Community: The Role of Parental Smoking and Anxiety Disorders

Background The goal of the current study is to examine the association between cigarette smoking and panic attacks and panic disorder among youth and to investigate parental anxiety disorders and parental cigarette smoking in these links. Methods Data were drawn from the Oregon Adolescent Depression Project (OADP) (n = 1709). Cigarette smoking and panic attacks and panic disorder were assessed at three time points from adolescence to young adulthood. Results Daily cigarette smoking at Time 1 was associated with a significantly increased risk of panic attacks (odds ratio [OR] = 2.6 [1.3, 5.3]) and panic disorder (OR = 4.2 [2.0, 8.9]) at Time 3. After adjusting for parental anxiety disorder and parental smoking, the association between cigarette smoking and panic attack was no longer statistically significant (OR = 2.0 [.9, 4.5]), though the association between cigarette smoking and panic disorder remained (OR = 3.7 [1.6, 8.9]). The association between smoking and panic was not evident between smoking and other anxiety disorders. Conclusions These findings replicate previous results showing cigarette smoking in adolescence is associated with an increased risk of panic attacks and panic disorder in early adulthood and provide initial evidence that parental anxiety and parental smoking may play a role.