One in seven people returns to tanning after being diagnosed with skin cancer, according to a study published in the journal JAMA Dermatology.
This can be compared to the situation where patients continue to smoke cigarettes after being diagnosed with lung cancer. Like nicotine, some people are addicted to tanning. New interventions are needed to change these behaviors, says Brenda Cartmel of the Yale School of Public Health in New Haven.
The research involved 178 people with basal cell carcinoma of the skin who used tanning beds before diagnosis.
Basal cell carcinoma is the most common skin cancer in the United States. Although it mostly affects men over 50, an increase in the incidence of young women has been observed over the last three decades.
About 15 percent. of the respondents admitted that during the twelve months after the diagnosis they visited the solarium at least once, and some people did so even 20 times. More than half of this group showed symptoms of addiction – feeling guilty about sunbathing or thinking about sunbathing immediately after waking up.
This is not a surprising result at all. There is ample evidence of the addictive effects of UV radiation. It may be important, for example, that as a result of exposure to UV radiation, endorphins are produced, the so-called feel-good hormones, comments Dr. Steven Feldman, a dermatologist at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. (PAP)
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