Does a reduced sensitivity to bitter taste increase the risk of becoming nicotine addicted?

Cigarette smoking appears to be on the increase in adolescents. The initiat ion of regular smoking nearly always begins before adulthood. It is therefo re crucial to find ways of identifying those children most vulnerable to ni cotine addiction and prioritizing them for preventive measures. We hypothes ized that individuals who, in a simple taste test, perceive phenylthiocarba mide (PTC) as bitter may find the taste of cigarettes aversively bitter and could therefore have a reduced vulnerability to nicotine addiction compare d to nontasters, who would be the group at greater risk of addiction. We st udied 242 Plains American Indians, 136 women and 106 men aged 18-59 years, and found that (allowing for gender differences and the possible direct eff ects of smoking on taste) the proportion of PTC nontasters to tasters in sm okers, even light smokers, was significantly greater than in both nonsmoker s and social smokers (chi (2) = 15.875, 4 df, P=.003), suggesting that nont asters, who are not aversive to the bitter taste of cigarettes, may be more at risk for heavy smoking and therefore more vulnerable to nicotine addict ion. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.