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| Schizophrenia Information > Smoking, Cigarettes, Nicotine and Schizophrenia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Smoking and Schizophrenia |
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Schizophrenia.com's guide to help reduce the health & financial burdens of cigarette addiction Research during the past decade has revealed that nicotine is an especially addictive substance for people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Approximately 85% of people who have schizophrenia are also heavy cigarette smokers (and 60% to 70% of people with bipolar disorder) and they smoke two to three times as much as an average smoker. In fact it has been estimated that 44% of all cigarettes used in the US are smoked by the mentally ill. The negative effects of smoking are clear - cigarette smoking causes 30% of deaths between the ages of 35 and 70, noted the Harvard Mental Health Letter (May, 2005) and "in patients with schizophrenia, cigarette smoking is probably the single most important risk factor for developing pulmonary disease, including asthma... and lung cancer." stated Clinical Psychiatry journal (April, 2005). Experts estimate that smoking kills 200,000 mentally ill people per year. Research now suggests that people with brain disorders smoke at a high rate partly because nicotine reduces some of the cognitive dysfunction that is a common symptom. In fact researchers are now working to identify and develop nicotine-like drugs they hope will provide even more relief but without the addiction and negative health impacts of cigarette smoking. Research clearly demonstrates that people who smoke cigarettes should stop smoking immediately. Cigarettes are the most health-damaging of all nicotine and tobacco products because of the way the smoke (with over 3,000 different chemicals) delivers toxins into the body. If a person doesn't want to quit nicotine entirely they should at minimum use the less harmful nicotine/tobacco products identified below. Experts estimate these low-toxin nicotine products will likely help reduce premature death risks by 90% or more.
* Cost per day of use is calculated by multiplying the average cost of the product (can, or package) by typical daily use. The May, 2005 "Harvard Health Letter" noted that "Most experts say nicotine itself does not cause cancer. It's addictive,... [but] it is other substances in tobacco smoke (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, tobacco-specific nitrosamines) that cause DNA damage and therefore cancer." Click Here to go to the Full Report - Nicotine, Smoking and Reducing the Harm of Addiction
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