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People with mental illness have very high rates of smoking. Is it because of stress, or could nicotine actually help the condition? There's more and more interest around the world in why people with mental illness have very high rates of smoking. Is it because of stress, or could it be that tobacco is actually helping the condition? If so, it's a double-edged sword. One example is a study of quitting cigarettes in smokers with and without schizophrenia. The researchers monitored thinking ability. In the people who had schizophrenia, quitting was especially difficult and often didn't last long, and in addition it made their thinking ability worse — whereas in healthy individuals, thinking ability improved. This is important for a couple of reasons. Work in Western Australia has shown that people with schizophrenia have significantly shorter lifespans than the rest of us, and one reason is their high rate of smoking-related illnesses — up to 90 per cent of these people smoke. The second reason is that smoking may be a form of self-medication, and nicotine possibly could be used to treat people with schizophrenia. Patches have been tried and they've been disappointing, but it could point to the way to new, innovative medications based on the smoking idea.
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