Indoor Tanning Linked to Teen Substance Abuse

New research links teen indoor tanning with substance abuse.

In a study of Colorado high school students, teens who took steroids were among the most likely to use tanning beds, especially adolescent boys. Alcohol consumption in the past 30 days, marijuana use and lifetime use of select illicit drugs also were associated with indoor tanning, according to the new study.

The findings are published as a research letter in JAMA Dermatology. 

It’s too early to tell whether Indoor tanning is the chicken or the egg, says lead study author Robert P. Dellavalle, M.D., Ph.D., M.S.P.H., of the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora and the Chief of Dermatology Service at the Denver VA Medical Center.

“We know that indoor tanning can be addictive so maybe the same pleasure centers are being cross activated or the same peer pressures are in play to do risky things,” he says in an interview with DermWire. “The study highlights a risk factor that parents might not be thinking about with regard to paying more attention and care to what teenagers might be doing in addition to indoor tanning":

For example, a doctor treating an adolescent who engages in indoor tanning may want to consider asking about steroid use too, the study authors suggest.