Persons with mental illness are about twice as likely to smoke as other persons but have substantial quit rates according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the most of the developped countries. Recent studies have focused on smoking in distinct populations, such as pregnant women and adolescents. The study published recently findings was focused on mental illness in areas that would need special attention.
Previous studies have found high smoking rates among selected populations of persons with mental illness, such as psychiatric outpatientsand patients in a state mental hospital.Others have found elevated smoking rates among patients with specific diagnoses, such as bipolar illness, depression, schizophrenia, and panic disorder. People with mental illness may encounter greater difficulty with tobacco discontinuance.However, no recent study has analyzed rates of smoking and quit rates across the spectrum of psychiatric diagnoses in a nationally representative sample. The new study hypothesized that persons with mental illness smoke at higher rates than persons without mental illness, have lower quit rates, and comprise a large proportion of the US tobacco market.
Smoking rates among those with mental illness were higher for young adults and Native Americans, as well as people with lower education levels and incomes below the poverty line, the CDC said. The report analyzed a nationally representative sample of more than 67,000 Americans aged 12 or older.