On November 21, the Harvard Medical School released a report
noting the connection between nicotine addiction and mental
illness. It is estimated that nearly 45 percent of total
cigarettes purchased in the United States were bought by
people with a diagnosable mental illness.
According to the study, which was published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association, this may
be because the mentally ill are more susceptible to the
attractions of tobacco advertising or nicotine addiction.
"We found that persons with mental illness are about twice
as likely to smoke as other persons," the Harvard report
said.
The information was based on data from a study conducted in
1991 and 1992 in conjunction with Congress' orders to
research the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the
United States. 4,411 people ranging from ages 15 to 54 were
interviewed. The report said this is the most recent
national survey available on mental illness and smoking.
The survey found that smokers with a mental disorder
accounted for the consumption of about 44.3 percent of the
cigarettes smoked by the nationally representative sample in
the previous 30 days.
"Extrapolating our results to the U.S. population, we
estimate that persons with a diagnosable mental disorder
consume nearly half of all cigarettes smoked in the United
States," the report said. "Our findings emphasize the
importance of focusing smoking prevention and cessation
efforts on the mentally ill." The study defined mental
illness broadly, from major depression, bipolar disorder and
panic disorder to alcohol abuse, drug dependence and
antisocial personality, and covering problems like
schizophrenia and delusional disorders.
"Perhaps mental illness causes smoking by making people more
vulnerable to tobacco advertising or nicotine addiction,"
said Karen Lasser, principal author of the study. "However,
other studies have called the direction of causality into
question, suggesting that smoking may cause mental illness
and our findings are certainly compatible with that as
well."
The report said that about a third of smokers with mental
illness were able to give up smoking. Statistics also
indicated that if they were leading drug-free and alcohol-
free lives, they had a cessation rate comparable to smokers
without mental illness. This should encourage them to try to
stop.
