Who Should Be Exempt From Quitting Smoking? The Mentally Ill, Say Doctors

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 - 12:07 in Health & Medicine

People with depression and anxiety are the heaviest smokers in the country but their doctors and mental health specialists don't ask them to quit due to concern that if they try to quit smoking their mental disorders will get worse.  Between 40 to 80 percent of people with mental illness are daily smokers, depending on the disorder, compared to less than 20 percent of people who don't have problems with mental illness, according to research. The mentally ill also smoke more cigarettes per day -- often up to two packs. They have a disproportionately high rate of tobacco-related disease and mortality, such as cardiovascular disease or cancer, with a correspondingly heavy financial burden to the health-care system. read more

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