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Cigarettes as a Positive Factor in Treating Mental Illness?

 

There is a wonderful post about cigarettes, nicotine, and schizophrenics by Dirk Hanson over at Addiction Inbox. He has a great blog with some wonderful content. The first paragraph of the piece is below…continue reading at Addiction Inbox Link.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Medical Cigarettes

Is it “Inhumane” to Take Cigarettes Away from Schizophrenics?
In an article for Brain Blogger a couple of years ago, I looked into the astonishing fact that, as a typical study of in-patient smoking among schizophrenics in Britain revealed, about 80-90% of the patients diagnosed with schizophrenia were cigarette smokers. Given that the running rate in the general population hovers around 20-25% on average, this is really quite amazing. It seems clear that nicotine is doing something for a schizophrenic that makes cigarettes into a form of self-medication that almost all schizophrenics apparently discover at one time or another. Read the rest of this interesting article at Addiction Inbox.

5 responses to “Cigarettes as a Positive Factor in Treating Mental Illness?”

  1. Thanks for the shout-out! You might also be interested in an article on the same subject that I wrote for the brain research outfit, The Dana Foundation: http://dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=37946

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  2. I so agree Blaga! Haven’t tried to quit yet – can’t even imagine the stress that would be:)

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  3. I’ve been trying to quit smoking for the past 2 years, but I have to tell you, not easy, there is nothing like a morning coffee with a smoke … bad me 🙂

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  4. Thanks for reading and commenting. I don’t know, but I have the same reaction. Maybe that’s why nicotine is addictive! LOL

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  5. Well that was interesting. I’m not schizophrenic but I do feel a calming effect after smoking and others I know have noted the same sensation. What is that about I wonder?

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