WASHINGTON (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - A study released this week by the Journal of American Medical Association found that mentally ill persons are likely to smoke twice as much compared to other smokers.
"We found that persons with mental illness are about twice as likely to smoke as other persons, a finding consistent with previous studies," said the Harvard report.
The findings were based on data from 4,411 people aged 15 to 54 questioned in a congressionally mandated study of the prevalence of U.S. psychiatric disorders conducted in 1991 and 1992. The report said it was the most recent national data source available on mental illness and smoking.
The study offered a wide ranging definition for mental illness, from major depression, bipolar disorder and panic disorder to alcohol abuse, drug dependence and antisocial personality, and also covering problems such as schizophrenia and delusional disorders.
“Perhaps mental illness causes smoking by making people more vulnerable to tobacco advertising or nicotine addiction,” said Karen Lasser, lead author of the study.
The report said that about a third of smokers with mental illness were able to quit, and if they were also abstaining from drugs and alcohol, they had a cessation rate comparable to smokers without mental illness - a finding that should encourage them to try to stop.
The study was supported by a grant from the National Research Services Award and in part by a grant from the Open Society Institute.
