Nov.24.2010
by admin
Secondhand Smoke and Mental Illness — Is there a link?
Very interesting study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. It is reported that secondhand smoke exposure may have a link to schizophrenia, depression, delirium and other psychological conditions. It turns out that tobacco also brings on negative moods in animals, and other studies on humans seem to show a correlation between depression and smoking.
I thought this was highly interesting as I recently had a patient go to Rehab who suffered from some other mental health conditions. She told me that at Rehab there was a social group on the back patio every couple of hours for the smokers. The patient ended up coming home with a new addiction to smoking. She basically replaced one addiction for another. I can’t help wondering if these facilities have the best interest of patients in mind… I also think it is interesting to observe that the very large majority of Schizophrenics (I think it’s in the 90ish percentile) are smokers. Coincidence?
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