Smoking associated with ‘high risk’ of developing schizophrenia: study

[slimvictor]

Physical health isn’t the only thing to decline every time a smoker lights up a cigarette. A new study shows smokers are at an increased risk of developing schizophrenia.

Researchers examined 61 studies that involved 14,555 smokers and 273,162 non-smokers and found that nicotine exposure can lead to changes in the brain as it increases the release of dopamine, causing the development of psychosis.

The study found that 57 percent of people with psychosis were smokers when they experienced their first psychotic episode. It also found that daily smokers were twice as likely as developing schizophrenia compared to non-smokers.

For those diagnosed with schizophrenia, the study showed that the smokers developed the illness about a year earlier than non-smokers and that it was likely to develop at a younger age in smokers.

“While it is always hard to determine the direction of causality, our findings indicate that smoking should be taken seriously as a possible risk factor for developing psychosis, and not dismissed simply as a consequence of the illness,” said the study’s co-author James MacCabe, a physician at King College’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience.

cont at
http://pix11.com/2015/07/12/smoking-associated-with-high-risk-of-developing-schizophrenia-study/

Scientific study: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(15)00152-2/fulltext

 

[slimvictor]

Tobacco Study Finds Link To Psychosis

http://www.piercepioneer.com/tobacco-study-finds-link-to-psychosis/43263

A new tobacco study has suggests that 57 percent of patients who are treated for psychosis (for the first time) are smokers.

As a matter of fact, the study indicates that smoking has the potential for tripling the chances for developing psychosis and could even trigger a serious mental illness in the future; illnesses like schizophrenia.

“Schizophrenia patients are more likely to smoke because they use cigarettes as a form of self-medication to ease the distress of hearing voices or having hallucinations,” the BBC said in an official statement.

 

[slimvictor]

^
A: Is that second article saying that smoking triggers schizophrenia, or that schizophrenics are more likely to smoke?
B: Actually, it says both.
A: Isn't that a bit odd?
B:Well, yes. But it also includes the same quote as the first article

“While it is always hard to determine the direction of causality, our findings indicate that smoking should be taken seriously as a possible risk factor for developing psychosis, and not dismissed simply as a consequence of the illness,” said the study’s co-author James MacCabe, a physician at King College’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience.

 

[pofacedhoe]

its also tobacco maoi carboxylines.

ffs

 

[PriestTheyCalledHim]

Sometimes schizophrenic people use a lot of nicotine or tobacco. I have been around people who are Schizophrenic who either chain smoked cigarettes/cigars, or chewed tobacco daily as they said it helped calm them down.

But the average person who smokes tobacco or uses it in other ways, is not going to somehow turn or become schizophrenic simply because they use tobacco or nicotine.

 

[AlphaMethylPhenyl]

I believe the consensus is that MAOIs are present in insignificant quantities to produce a psychoactive effect unless one is constantly smoking cigars or something.

Chicken or egg I guess.

 

[slimvictor]

Tobacco is a messed-up drug, imo. I am not judging people who choose to use it (though I used to when I was younger). But, my cost-benefit analysis of tobacco use shows a huge cost of quality of life, and little benefit.

the average person who smokes tobacco or uses it in other ways, is not going to somehow turn or become schizophrenic simply because they use tobacco or nicotine.

Doesn't this statement contradict the premise of the article?
Well, it's not true that the average person will suddenly go mad if they smoke, of course.
But the risk of developing schizophrenia is increased, per person, over the population of smokers.

 

[endotropic]

I'm always amazed by the hoops medical researchers will jump through to ignore the fact that correlation never implies causation. If we want to use this logic then alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, gambling and every other risky behavior all cause schizophrenia.