Scientist smoking increases the risk of mental illness

Smoking a risk factor for mental health
The fact that there is a statistical link between mental illness and smoking is undisputed. However, it has remained unclear whether people with mental health problems are more likely to use tobacco, or whether tobacco smoke increases the risk of mental illness and therefore smokers suffer more from mental illness. Scientists at London's King's College have now investigated in a recent study "why people with psychosis are more smokers than the general population." Their findings were published in the journal "The Lancet.".

The research team led by Robin Murray and James MacCabe from London's King's College has investigated various hypotheses on the causes of the statistical relationship between tobacco use and mental illness. They found that smoking obviously causes an increased disease risk. Tobacco consumers are therefore increasingly developing mental illnesses. Although the study is not to be considered as clear evidence of a Causal summation, researchers should now further examine whether smoking is a possible cause of the mental illness.

Smoking harms not only the lungs, but also the psyche. (Image: igor / fotolia.com)

Increased mental illness with daily tobacco consumption
The scientists analyzed data from 14,555 tobacco consumers and 273,162 non-smokers from 61 previous studies in their current study. Among other things, they approached the question of whether "daily tobacco consumption is associated with an increased risk of mental illness." The researchers also determined to what extent smoking can be associated with an earlier age of onset of mental illness. Overall, according to the scientists 57 percent of patients with a mental disorder at the time of their first diagnosis were already smokers, which argues for the thesis that smoking is to be evaluated here as a risk factor. Also, the calculations would have a significantly increased risk of new mental disorders in daily tobacco consumers compared to non-smokers. "Daily smokers also develop mental illness at an earlier age than non-smokers," the researchers report. The daily tobacco consumption is "associated with an increased risk of psychosis and a lower age at onset of mental illness," the conclusion of Murray, MacCabe and colleagues.

According to the British researchers, smoking could be extremely detrimental not only to physical health because it also increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (eg heart attack, stroke) and cancer. But also the psychological well-being is obviously clearly affected by the tobacco consumption. As here the exact metabolic connections fail - whether, for example, the dopamine release plays an essential role - further investigations must now clarify. (Fp)