Smoking rates higher among the mentally ill
Utah has the lowest smoking rate for people with mental illness, while West Virginia has the highest, according to a new study.
According to a report issued Tuesday by both the Centers of Disease Control and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, people with mental illness are 70% more likely to smoke than those without. The report shows that 36% of adults with mental illness smoke, compared to just 21% of people without mental illness.
There are about 46 million adults with mental illness in the United States. According to the report, those same adults are less likely to quit smoking once they've started and consume nearly a third of the cigarettes sold in the U.S.
While 34% of women with mental illness smoke, the problem is a bit more acute for the 40% of men with mental illness who do the same. The report links poverty to increased smoking among all demographics, but it's a far greater issue for those with mental illness. While 33% of those without mental illness living below the poverty line smoke, that percentage jumps to 48% once mental illness is a factor.
So what's the key difference? Though the report didn't include patients in psychiatric hospitals, it noted that smoking is far more normalized at mental health facilities than in other establishments. Patients there are also more likely to know people who smoke and to receive cigarettes as a reward for good behavior. Once people with mental illness start smoking, they find that it takes the edge off their medication's negative side effects and they continue to use cigarettes to keep symptoms under control.
Unfortunately, the doctors behind the report found that mental illness also makes smokers a lot less capable of handling withdrawal symptoms and reduces their desire to quit. This contributes to corresponding rates of mental illness and overall smoking in certain states. Utah, for example, had the lowest rate of smoking among people with mental illness at 18.1%. Meanwhile, West Virginia had the highest rate at 48.7%.
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Create a product that enslaves unstable people that way we kill off all the people with weak wills thus furthering the human race by getting rid inferior people. Darwins survival of the richest tobacco executive.
Can I bumm a cig from someone.
I AM NOT MAD I TELL YOU ......
I AM NOT ...... I am not .....
oohhhh that feels gooooooooood ........
CDC is now classified as a "Tool" of the current administration.....
I see it now, If you smoke, you're classified as possibly mentally ill and you may be turned down for gun ownership........How convienent!
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