Background: There is a close relationship between tobacco smoking and psychiatric disorders, and a higher proportion of individuals with mental health conditions smoke compared with the general population. Due to the increased smoking prevalence in this population, patients with psychiatric conditions are at greater risk of smoking-related morbidity and mortality and experience detrimental effects on their quality of life. However, while the majority of individuals with a history of mental health conditions appreciate that smoking is detrimental to their health, they are less likely to quit smoking and have a lower success rate during quit attempts compared with the general population.
Scope: Peer-reviewed articles were identified from PubMed using the inclusive date-range of 1990 - October 2008 and the search terms; depression, mental health, psychiatric disorders, schizophrenia, and smoking cessation. Articles were selected from the search results to provide a general overview of some of the main issues for smokers with psychiatric disorders in general and specifically, those with schizophrenia and depression. The evidence from smoking cessation trials within these populations was also reviewed.
Findings: Nicotine has some positive effects on symptoms of psychiatric disorders and it has been proposed that patients with mental health conditions may smoke as a form of self-medication. Further, several studies have shown that some symptoms of psychiatric disorders may be exacerbated by nicotine withdrawal. Therefore, attempts to quit smoking pose additional problems to patients with mental health problems.
Conclusion: Traditional programmes for smoking cessation may not always be suitable for psychiatric patients due to their neuropsychological profile. Preliminary evidence suggests that more flexible, open-ended, combination approaches of pharmacotherapy and counselling may be more successful. In addition, identification and treatment of nicotine addiction remains very low in patients with mental health conditions and far more needs to be done to raise the awareness and ability of psychiatrists to diagnose and treat patients with nicotine problems.