Smoking and How it Relates to Depression and Other Psychological Disorders • 41%

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Smoking and How it Relates to Depression and Other Psychological Disorders

• 41% of people with a current psychological disorder are smokers.
• People who have been diagnosed with a psychological disorder are more likely to be heavy smokers, smoking at least one pack per day.
Why is there a relationship between smoking and psychological disorders? Smokers report that they experience better attention and concentration, increased energy, lower anxiety and greater calm after smoking. These effects are most likely due to the nicotine in the tobacco. Nicotine affects multiple brain structures and alters the release of many different neurotransmitters. These same neurotransmitters are also directly involved in many different psychological disorders.

Mental illness does not necessarily cause people to smoke, but it is said, that smoking is used as a form of self-medication. Naturally there are other ways (through therapy and prescription medication that is less harmful to your lungs) to decrease symptoms of anxiety and assist with concentration and attention.

In the past decade, many studies have suggested that smoking could trigger the onset of symptoms in people WHO ARE PROBABLY ALREADY VULNERABLE to the development of a mental disorder, especially Major Depressive Disorder. The following are 2 research outcomes about smoking and psychological disorders:
• People who smoke have nearly twice the risk of later developing major depression than nonsmokers.
• In a study involving people with bipolar disorder, daily cigarette smokers had worse symptoms and longer hospital stays than nonsmoking bipolar patients.

Critical Thinking Question:
Since there is some supporting evidence that smoking and Psychological Disorders are related, do you think that tobacco companies should be required to contribute part of their profits to the cost of mental health treatment and research? Your assignment is to answer this question with your opinion in at least 2 paragraphs.

Explanation / Answer

I feel that it would be an act of having double standards if tobacco companies were to contribute a part of their profits to mental health treatment and research. Let us not forget that these organisations are producing and promoting a product with demonstrated negative side effects, both physical and psychological. In this case, I don’t see any point for such industries to come up with aids for treatment when they are the cause of illness itself.

However, if the companies contributing their profits for the cause of mental health was taken into consideration, two points should be noted. Firstly, there is ample evidence of tobacco being linked to cancer and several respiratory diseases. It would be a unfair if the treatment efforts were only directed to the mental health aspects. Furthermore, since smoking seems to be linked to mental illness as a form of self-medication, we cannot say that smoking leads to ment illness, rather it is the other way round. From this perspective, tobacco companies have no obligation towards mental health research and treatment as they are not the ones causing it.

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