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Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2002;156:625-626.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Nicotine addiction develops in the first years of tobacco use.¹ Despite health education efforts to prevent adolescents from experimenting with tobacco, more than 3000 youth become regular smokers each day.² A recent study showed that half of all adolescents who become addicted to cigarettes will smoke for at least 20 years before they quit.³ Many adolescents who smoke regularly want to quit and between 55% to 65% of adolescent smokers report having tried to quit.⁴ The need to develop successful tobacco cessation interventions for adolescents is clear. However, few adolescent cessation programs have been developed, let alone adequately evaluated.⁵

In this report, we describe the smoking relapse curve for adolescent smokers compared with adult smokers from a population sample. We used population-based data for adolescents and adults to compare naturally occurring smoking cessation rates. The adolescent data were part of a longitudinal survey, with the baseline conducted in 1989 and . . . [Full Text of this Article]