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Researchers examining vaping rates in Australian teenagers have detected clear links between vaping and mental health challenges including anxiety disorders, higher perceived stress levels, depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation.

So clear are the links that research co-author Dr Mandy Truong, from the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS), recommends that parents and carers who discover a teenager has been vaping seek mental health assessments and supports for their child.

A new paper has found teenagers who vape are also more likely to suffer from mental health challenges.Credit: James Brickwood

“Finding out a teen is vaping might be a trigger to investigate further. Is there an underlying mental health issue? Are they vaping to relieve stress or anxiety?” Truong said.

“Or, if it’s already known that there are mental health concerns, does the teen realise that vaping could potentially exacerbate those issues?”

Truong and her co-researcher Eliza Cotton from AIFS, a federal statutory agency that conducts research to inform government policy, reviewed research from Australia on vaping rates among 14-17-year-olds.

The data showed the number of 14-17-year-old Australians who vape has risen almost 12-fold in just four years, from less than 1 per cent in 2018, to 11.8 per cent in 2022.

A 2016 study from the United States showed links between cigarette smoking and depression and anxiety, a result which has been mirrored in links between mental health challenges and vaping rates.

One study cited by the AIFS team showed 16-24-year-olds with increased depressive symptoms were almost 40 per cent more likely to have tried vaping, and 42 per cent more likely to have vaped in the past 30 days than those without depressive symptoms.

Those with increased anxiety symptoms were almost 20 per cent more likely to have tried vaping than 16-24-year-olds with no anxiety symptoms.

Truong said while a lot is still unknown about the cause-effect relationship, it’s important that the link between vaping and mental ill-health be widely understood.

“We can’t say that for every teen who uses e-cigarettes, their mental health will suffer as a result,” she said.

“However, we do know that having depressive symptoms makes you more likely to use e-cigarettes and vice versa – so there is a strong association there.

“I think it’s like a trigger to investigate further and ask some more broad questions about what’s going on in their lives, in a non-judgmental way. It’s about helping people understand what the risks are to their mental health and being aware that it might be exacerbating any feelings of stress they might be going through.”

The AIFS also found young people who vape are more likely to take up cigarette smoking later, although they were unable to quantify the rate at which young vapers were switching to tobacco.

Research has identified a strong link between vaping and smoking uptake. For the first time in more than two decades, the proportion of 14-17-year-old Australians who smoke tobacco has increased, rising from 2 per cent in 2018 to 7 per cent in 2022.

Truong said more work needed to be done on the effects of vaping on young people, whose bodies and brains are still developing.

Last month, Quit Victoria raised fears vape outlets were targeting children by selling sweets in their shops, and stationing outlets near schools.

Melbourne mother of two Amelia Carey has noticed the trend, and said vape shops were targeting young people with seeming impunity.

Near her home in Preston, a vape shop opened in the past 12 months on the site of a former pharmacy and health-food provider. The shop now sells sweets and vapes.

“That’s what I find so insidious. People don’t even realise it’s a vape shop because it’s got lollies in the window,” she said.

“I’ve got no objection to adults vaping, but it’s the targeting of children, and then the unknown of whether it’s actually got nicotine in it or not.”

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