Smoking and the Mentally Ill

The Washington Post had an interesting op-ed piece by Steven A. Schroeder this weekend on the prevalence of smoking among the mentally ill.

The most startling passage is this one:

The facts about smoking and mental illness are stark. Almost half of all cigarettes sold in the United States (44 percent) are consumed by people with mental illness. This is because so many people who have mental illnesses smoke (50 to 80 percent, compared with less than 20 percent of the general population) and because they smoke so many cigarettes a day — often three packs. Furthermore, smokers with mental illness are much more likely to smoke their cigarettes right down to the filters.

Shroeder says that because physicians and mental health advocates have looked the other way for years regarding smoking and their patients the problem has not gotten the attention it deserves. Sadly, tools such as counseling and nicotine replacement have been severely underutilized by the mentally ill.

– Lakshmi Gandhi