IF YOU smoke, would a genetic test that revealed you were prone to nicotine addiction help you to quit or make you even less likely to try? Smokers who were asked this question said it would encourage them to seek help, rather than relying on will power alone.
There is evidence that genetics plays a big part in how susceptible different individuals are to nicotine addiction, though as yet no tests are available. But if such tests were developed, knowing how smokers would react to the results will be vital. One fear is that people could view their habit as genetically determined and so decide that trying to stop is futile, says Alison Wright, a psychologist at King鈥檚 College London.
Her team asked 269 adult smokers to imagine and record their reactions when given the result of a mock genetic test. Some of the volunteers were told they had a gene making them susceptible to nicotine addiction, and that a drug treatment (Zyban) could help them kick the habit.
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Being told whether or not they had the addiction gene did not make any of the volunteers change their minds about quitting. But those who already wanted to stop and were told they had the gene said it would make them far more willing to accept help. They were 4.7 times as likely to say they would rely on Zyban as those who wanted to stop but didn鈥檛 have the gene (Tobacco Control, vol 12, p 227).
Using drugs typically doubles a smoker鈥檚 success rate when quitting, says Robert Walton, who studies tobacco addiction at the University of Oxford. So if genetic testing helped steer people towards this option it would be helpful. But even though the researchers described a simple hypothetical situation, a quarter of the subjects failed to understand their test result. And in reality, any genetic tests of susceptibility are likely to be far more complicated. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 a big challenge that we need to think about,鈥� says Wright.