Smoking more than doubles your risk of mental illness: new study

[Kamaji]

Smoking more than doubles your risk of mental illness: new study

By Marc Lallanilla
Published Sep. 11, 2023

It’s no secret that smoking cigarettes can ruin your body.

The list of illnesses that smoking causes — heart disease, stroke, diabetes, emphysema, bronchitis and several types of cancer — is long and troubling.

However, most people don’t realize that smoking is also associated with mental illness.

In recent years, studies have suggested that there’s a strong link between the two.

But researchers haven’t been able to decide whether smoking causes mental disorders, or if individuals who already have a mental disorder smoke to ease their symptoms.

Now, researchers from Aarhus University in Denmark believe they’ve proven that smoking is a cause of mental illnesses like depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

“The numbers speak for themselves — smoking does cause mental illness,” Dr. Doug Speed, statistical geneticist at Aarhus University’s Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, said in a statement.

“Although it’s not the only cause, smoking increases the risk of being hospitalized with a mental illness by 250%,” Speed added.

*  *  *

Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/09/11/smoking-more-than-doubles-your-risk-of-mental-illness/

[Kamaji]

Considering that smoking has dropped off quite significantly in the last few decades, but mental illness seems to have been on the rise over the same period, I rather doubt the conclusions except, perhaps, in certain limited cases and with predispositions.

[Smokin Joe]

Considering that smoking has dropped off quite significantly in the last few decades, but mental illness seems to have been on the rise over the same period, I rather doubt the conclusions except, perhaps, in certain limited cases and with predispositions.

After decades of the mantra that 'tobacco has no medical value',  perhaps it did after all.

I have seen people use it to counteract some of the effects of alcohol, and others use it when under high stress or injured (constriction of peripheral blood vessels may well help ward off shock). Perhaps there are other effects which have been ignored.

[Gefn]

Nicotine may help with some of the changes in the brain when you have schizophrenia. For example, if you have schizophrenia, you'll have less activity in a part of the brain called the prefrontal cortex. This part of the brain is important for making decisions and solving problems. It also plays a role in memory.

https://www.webmd.com/schizophrenia/schizophrenia-smoking-the-link#:~:text=Nicotine%20may%20help%20with%20some,plays%20a%20role%20in%20memory.