Mentally Ill Smoke 30% of All Cigarettes

slimvictor

slimvictor

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Federal survey results indicate that smoking intensities as well as smoking rates are dramatically higher in the mentally ill compared with other Americans, officials said Tuesday.

A joint "Vital Signs" report from the CDC and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) indicated that, among adults who reported symptoms consistent with a recognized mental illness, 36.1% were current smokers, compared with 21.4% of the rest of the population.

The report, based on data from the 2009-2011 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, also found that 30.9% of all cigarettes consumed in the U.S. were smoked by the mentally ill. In part, this disproportion reflects heavier smoking in the mentally ill, with an average of 331 cigarettes per month compared with 310 in the rest of the smoking population.

Individuals classified as mentally ill in the study represented 19.9% of the sample surveyed after weighing to reflect the general population's demographics.

Excluded from smoking analyses were individuals in institutions and those considered to have alcohol and substance use disorders.

During a telephone briefing for reporters, Douglas Tipperman, MSW, a tobacco prevention specialist at SAMHSA, said the higher smoking incidence among the mentally ill is an outgrowth of lower quit rates.

More than half of the non-mentally ill population who has ever smoked has since quit. But among the mentally ill, only about 34% of ever-smokers have succeeded in quitting, Tipperman said.




cont at
http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/Smoking/37203
 
Yes, the mentally ill are more likely to smoke, but the statistical effect isn't as dramatic as the title of the article leads one to believe.

ebola
 
The reason many people on antipsychotics are heavy smokers may be that smoking speeds the metabolism of certain antipsychotics. I don't know if that specific effect is significant, but when I was on antipsychotics (mostly haloperidol, olanzapine and quetiapine) I'd smoke to try to jump-start my brain.

Also, I think, flooding your bloodstream with nicotine may counteract some of the anticholinergic effects (I haven't checked if this is accurate).
 
^This is likely true, but then you throw off the acetylcholine/dopamine balance to stave off extra-pyramidal symptoms.
 
If this was weed instead of tobacco you'd see an article in The Sun saying "CANNABIS CAUSES MENTAL ILLNESS".

Ah, correlation.
 
Amphetamines definitely made me want to smoke more cigarettes. I no longer smoke cigarettes at all, and barely ever take amphs but I remember how it gave me something to focus on other than my anxious feelings...and yeah, whoever wrote the article, people self-medicate.
 
All schizophrenics smoke. I have yet to meet one who didn't at least used to. If I met someone supposedly schizophrenic who claimed to have tried cigarettes and hated them right off the bat, I'd question their diagnosis.

I've read a good bit of literature on this, actually, and my working theory is that schizophrenics' brains are simply wired in a way that makes nicotine much more pleasurable than for most people. In a very basic way this makes sense to me. My neuroscience is very basic, but I have noticed in medicine that there is a close, and roughly inverse, relationship between dopaminergic tone and cholinergic tone in the nervous system. I see this when Benadryl is given to ameliorate the unpleasant side effects of the fiercely anti-dopaminergic first generation antipsychotics. I see this when ADHD patients only develop a taste for cigarettes after they're put on Adderall. If anticholinergic drugs are a balm to people with inappropriately dwindling dopaminergic activity (Parkinson's patients), then I'm not surprised that pro-cholinergic drugs like nicotine are a balm to people with inappropriately increased dopaminergic activity (schizophrenics).

I can see this news being used for good or for evil. On the good side, I'd like to see a non-toxic, non-carcinogenic modest-affinity nicotinic cholinergic agonist developed that could be given to schizophrenic patients, that scratched the same itch as a cigarette without all the health risks, social stigma, and wasted money. On the bad side, I'd hate to see Big Tobacco start aiming their ad campaigns squarely at schizophrenics.

I know I'm spitting in the wind when I say this, but restricting a potentially broad term like "mentally ill" to a politically correct euphemism for "schizophrenic" is such a waste of a useful and tasteful phrase. It's a phrase that ought to be imprecise, but instead is used in a very precise way. I never use this term in a medical setting, for this reason. "Mentally handicapped" irks me for the same reason.
 
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mdao said:
I can see this news being used for good or for evil. On the good side, I'd like to see a non-toxic, non-carcinogenic modest-affinity nicotinic cholinergic agonist developed that could be given to schizophrenic patients, that scratched the same itch as a cigarette without all the health risks, social stigma, and wasted money. On the bad side, I'd hate to see Big Tobacco start aiming their ad campaigns squarely at schizophrenics.
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Nicotine itself isn't a carcinogen, afaik. Does the pure chemical (in reasonable doses) have any substantial negative health effects? I mean, in normal people, not for those of us with Crohn's. Of course I still smoke (side-effect of undiagnosed mental illness, perhaps).
 
Chesh said:
If this was weed instead of tobacco you'd see an article in The Sun saying "CANNABIS CAUSES MENTAL ILLNESS".

Ah, correlation.
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Totally. I think its safe to say tobacco may increase the likelihood of developing or perpetuating mental illness.
 
MyDoorsAreOpen said:
All schizophrenics smoke. I have yet to meet one who didn't at least used to. If I met someone supposedly schizophrenic who claimed to have tried cigarettes and hated them right off the bat, I'd question their diagnosis.
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I know a schizophrenic person who quit smoking cigarettes. Their mental health declined after quitting but it didn't appear to be an immediate decline, and was likely correlated to a bunch of other things and not so much their smoking.
 
so that means they smoke all the way down to the filter?

ah just kidding. i see a lot of ppl at the clinic who are by my guess homeless and have metal illnesses, pick up butts from the ground or out of the bin , get out the zig zags and bust open the cig butts to get any useable tobac and make a rollie out of possibly a dozen ppls dirty cigg butts.

i smoke around a pack of reds a week, honestly i can take it or leave it, i hate the smell it puts on me, but sometimes a cig is just good, maybe the oral fixation thing, idk. when i was a heavy iv heroin user i would chain smoke, lighting a new one with my old one before outing it, nod off, wake up with burns or burn holes. my friend phil once burned a basketball size hole in my sofa while nodding on dope, slept on the balcony. it was summer tho.
 
Never Knows Best said:
:o I have done this plenty of times.
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I used to do that too when I was unemployed and out of money... Mostly I didn't use other peoples cigarette butts though, I collected my own in a large jar to 'reuse' later.

But on the topic of the thread, when I was psychotic some years ago, I smoked like 3 packs a day... Now when I'm stable on antipsychotics, I smoke only one pack.
 
Captain.Heroin said:
I know a schizophrenic person who quit smoking cigarettes. Their mental health declined after quitting but it didn't appear to be an immediate decline, and was likely correlated to a bunch of other things and not so much their smoking.
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Like I said, at least used to.

I didn't mean to imply that schizophrenics always fail at quitting tobacco or can't comprehend the use in quitting tobacco. I've seen otherwise on many occasions. But what I am saying is, I've never met a schizophrenic who didn't have a fairly strong affinity for tobacco, and I'm pretty convinced that schizophrenia and strong affinity for nicotine are caused by some of the same anomalous brain architecture.
 
When I used to work at a mental hospital and I went to the patio to smoke, I always had some patient asking me for a cut of my cigarette. I always did leave them about 30% (I'd buy 100s).

At some point some liberal administrator decided it'd be a good idea to ban smoking from the mental health wing. That went really well! By the 10th time our unit called the SWAT team, the police all but forced us to lift the cigarette ban.
 
Where I live cigs (and smoking) isn't allowed in the mental ward; they give em inhalers, patches, and gum; nothin like the real stuff I hear, nothin
 
That sucks. They helped us budget for cigarettes and stuff. Only thing was we weren't allowed to bum smokes or give any out.
 
MyDoorsAreOpen said:
Like I said, at least used to.

I didn't mean to imply that schizophrenics always fail at quitting tobacco or can't comprehend the use in quitting tobacco. I've seen otherwise on many occasions. But what I am saying is, I've never met a schizophrenic who didn't have a fairly strong affinity for tobacco, and I'm pretty convinced that schizophrenia and strong affinity for nicotine are caused by some of the same anomalous brain architecture.
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Yeah there is definitely a correlation, you are right.

They had a strong affinity for it, and I'm amazed they were even able to quit considering how fucked up their life had become due to schizophrenia (constant delusions, auditory and visual hallucinations, almost every hour of every day). I figured, if they could quit, most people could too.

23536 said:
When I used to work at a mental hospital and I went to the patio to smoke, I always had some patient asking me for a cut of my cigarette. I always did leave them about 30% (I'd buy 100s).

At some point some liberal administrator decided it'd be a good idea to ban smoking from the mental health wing. That went really well! By the 10th time our unit called the SWAT team, the police all but forced us to lift the cigarette ban.
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=D hahahaha. I can only imagine the police's interactions with your administrator. "LET 'EM SMOKE, DAMN IT, OR WE'RE NOT COMING OUT HERE AGAIN!" hahahaah
 
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