A GP who became addicted to vaping is warning about the potential hazards of the habit.
Dr Marc Picot started using vapes in an attempt to deal with restlessness caused by the medicine he was taking for depression.
But not only did it fail to help but he found that after only a few weeks he was addicted to the nicotine in the products and could not stop.
He has since launched a website to raise awareness about the issue.
“I knew it was making me feel worse but I was addicted. One of the signs of addiction – and one of the criteria of addiction – is that you continue to do something or take a substance or drug, which nicotine is, when it’s causing you harm in whatever form. Seven months of it was making me worse because it was making me even more restless and, psychologically, I would say it was actually contributing to my depression,” he said.
Dr Picot acknowledged the value of vaping as a tool in helping people to quit smoking but said he was concerned by an increasing uptake from young people and people who had never smoked yet who had become addicted to nicotine through vaping, and he is cautious about assertions that it is not itself harmful.
Speaking to the JEP recently as part of “Stoptober”, when the Stop Smoking Service aims to raise awareness of the benefits of quitting smoking, Rhona Reardon, the lead clinical nurse for the service, stressed that children and non-smokers should not use vapes “as nicotine is addictive” and that vaping levels “must be monitored” by the government.
Dr Picot said: “There are some risks associated with it. The National Centre for Smoking Cessation will say that nicotine does not affect the developing brain. However, if you look at the World Health Organisation, which is basically the gold standard, they say that it does. There is significant data to suggest it does damage the developing brain and it leads to things like learning problems, memory problems, concentration problems in adolescents and later life, so we should be circumspect about it.”
What concerns Dr Picot particularly is anecdotal evidence of vaping by children as young as nine who are turning to single-use products – a ban of which is shortly to be debated by the States Assembly – which are “sky high” in their nicotine content. It has prompted him to share his own experiences and to try to point parents and teachers to some of the resources available to help.
“We know that nicotine withdrawal – nicotine does come with a withdrawal syndrome – can vary from person to person. [I hope] I’m able to gather some services that can help people get through this withdrawal syndrome, which can include physical symptoms like nausea, tiredness, weakness and sleep problems but more so things like low mood, depression and anxiety. Sometimes it needs some form of intervention but most of the time it’s temporary,” he said.
Dr Picot stresses that the purpose of the website – breakthevape.org – is not to scaremonger but rather to offer factual information that will help those seeking assistance.
“If you switch from smoking to vaping to get off cigarettes, that’s great. But they suggest after around 12 months, you should start to consider stopping vaping. Therefore, it’s supposed to be an intermediary and a means to an end. You should have a goal of coming off vaping, you shouldn’t just vape for the next ten or 20 years of your life,” he said.
