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Good point. It is true that the percentage of smokers is higher (I think 20-30%) than that of ADHD.
I remember in Spain in my generation more than 60% people consumed alcohol daily at each meal, lunch, dinner and even breakfast (I started at 4 years old), and almost did not exist alcoholics. In orther to generate a compulsive addiction it is needed two conditions: genetic susceptibility and be afraid to get addicted, try to control intake.
What percentage of smokers have developed a compulsive addiction? I do not know.
Neither do I know what percentage of the population has a dopamine deficit. ADHD people comes to be those which the deficit is important enough to be clearly symptomatic.
In Europe it is been made the tests PET (Positron Emissions Tomographies) on nicotine addicts, the same carried out by the NIDA on addicted to methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and alcohol, and the result was similar, also nicotine addicts have a brain with the same characteristics as ADHD people. However I personally believe that nicotine and heroin can hook people without dopamine deficit. Both drugs have a great homeostasis (fast physiological changes in order to keep initial balance)
Although it does not have to mean anything, epidemiological figures are curious. Around the 6-16% of children and teenagers in the U.S. are diagnosed with ADHD and only between 10 and 15% of drug users generate a compulsive addiction.
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