Breathe Healthily, Live Happily: A Prospective Study on Cigarette Smoking and Mental Well-Being
Our bodies are our temples. So, naturally, we should take strides in our physical health, along with our mental wellbeing and what we put into them. These guiding health mantras are especially pertinent when taking in substances, such as with the case with cigarettes. As we all know based on numerous studies, smoking is bad for you. What’s new to know, really? Surprisingly, a lot. In the case of this prospective study, smoking is not only found to be bad for the lungs, but is also implicated in causing harm to one’s mental health.
When one is plagued by that constant need for a smoke, it is quite easy to believe that that a smoking fix can lessen stress and tension, as well as reduce the severity of mental illness symptoms. This is known as the self-medication hypothesis. However, as the authors of this study put forth, this effect, in actuality, is only temporary as smoking can possibly lead to psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and depression.
The authors sought to find out if smoking was a self- medicating substance as many believed. To find the answers, individuals between 16-50 years were recruited. Recruits included 1094 participants with mood disorders (aka non-affective psychoses, such as schizophrenia) and 1047 non-affected siblings, as well as 579 participants forming a healthy control group.
At the starting point, 729 (67%) of patients with non-affective psychosis smoked compared to 401 (38%) of 1047 siblings and 145 (25%) of the healthy control group. Participants with non-affective psychoses were recruited by clinicians from four university medical centres and 36 associated mental health-care institutions in the Netherlands and Belgium between Jan 13, 2004, and March 6, 2014, using the DSM-IV as reference. 3-year and 6-year follow-ups were conducted with participants using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), Assessment of Psychotic Experience (CAPE), and the World Health Organization (WHO) Quality of Life Assessment.
The authors found that smoking was associated with higher increases in depressive and subclinical symptoms and an overall lower quality of life. Many individuals who quit smoking found their quality of life drastically improved and noted less depressive symptoms. Adversely, those who picked up the habit of smoking reported more subclinical symptoms. Furthermore, quitting could even potentially lead to a reduction in prescriptions of antidepressants and anxiolytics, according to the authors.
As aforementioned, smoking can feel like a temporary fix for mental health issues, as it eases the brutal withdrawal symptoms, hence why many are so reliant on the substance. However, this is not the case as more cigarettes smoked per day were found to contribute to poorer mental health symptoms. Through this study, the authors suggest that mental health professionals shift their focus and encourage their smoking clients to quit, as doing so can help in recovery; thus implementing better mental health outcomes. Mental health advocacy should also focus on smoking and its causality to poor mental health issues.
In the meantime, hopefully, this study turns people off tobacco. As for those who are on the path to quitting, I salute you and hopefully this motivates you to put out that butt for good.
Source:
Taylor, G. M., & Munafò, M. R. (2018). Does smoking cause poor mental health?. The lancet. Psychiatry.
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