Mentally ill people are more likely to take up smoking: Study

NEW DELHI: People with mental illnesses are much more likely to smoke cigarettes than those without, according to a study published recently in Lancet.
The study says 50% of those suffering from serious mental ailments such as schizophrenia and other psychoses smoke cigarettes and are unlikely to quit easily , as compared to 15.5% of people without such diseases.

“They (people with mental illness) also smoke more cigarettes per day and inhale more deeply than other smokers, achieving higher blood levels of nicotine than smokers without serious mental illnesses,“ the article says.

It also points out that in some schizophrenics, nicotine use might be a form of self-medication used to attenuate the negative symptoms of their disorder, improve their cognitive performance, or reduce the severity of the side effects of their medication.

The higher prevalence in such patients is attributed to a higher rate of smoking uptake combined with fewer and less successful quit attempts. Quitting smoking can give substantial mental health benefits such as reduced symptoms of depression and anxiety , according to the study.

“Some people with serious mental illnesses find quitting much more difficult because of socio-economic disadvantage, cognitive impairment, or an absence of support for abstinence from family and peers,“ the study says.