Recent studies have shown that people with mental illness smoke more often, start smoking at an earlier age, have a more pronounced nicotine addiction, and tobacco use in their case leads to more serious health consequences. Also, despite widespread public campaigns against smoking, it is most difficult to reduce the consumption of tobacco products in this category of the population. This was told in an interview with RT by the head of the department of endocrinological psychiatry of the Research Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology named after V.M. Ankylosing spondylitis Galina Maso.

All this gave scientists reason to believe that nicotine plays a role in the development of mental illness.

“Modern studies show that the risk of mental illness in smokers is 1.9 to 2.3 times higher than in the non-smoking population,” Maso said.

She explained that we are talking about a wide range of mental disorders, including affective diseases (depression, bipolar disorder) and schizophrenic (schizophrenia, schizotypal personality disorder) spectrum.

Bidirectional Communications

However, as Galina Mazo notes, “in connection with mental disorders and smoking, we are talking about bidirectional connections.”

“It is known that smoking is more common in the population of schizophrenia patients than in the general population. But it cannot be ruled out that clinically pronounced symptoms of mental illness, such as fear, anxiety, nervous tension, in turn lead to tobacco use, ”the specialist explained.

At the same time, many smokers are sure that the cigarette calms, makes it possible to concentrate and relieve stress, and smoking is almost a method of “self-medication”.

According to Galina Mazo, to a certain extent, all this may have a place to be, but only in the early stages of smoking. Over time, a hypothetical positive effect is lost. A negative effect is exerted by an increase in the intensity of smoking. For smokers with experience, cognitive abilities and mood decline. Moreover, recent studies have shown that after quitting smoking, anxiety and stress, on the contrary, are significantly reduced.

“We can assume that this is a vicious circle: if smoking brings relief in the initial stages, then certain biological mechanisms that lead to a deterioration in both mental and somatic conditions are turned on,” Galina Mazo explained the nature of this phenomenon.

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Age dependence

According to studies, the effect of nicotine on the fetus during pregnancy increases the chances of developing mental illness in the offspring, said Galina Maso.

“This means that smoking can affect the development of the fetal brain, making it more vulnerable to mental disorders,” she emphasized.

The age at which a person is addicted to a bad habit also matters. The sooner a person begins to smoke, the higher the risk of developing his mental pathology, the scientist explained.

“According to a prospective study, adolescents who smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day had a higher risk of developing mental pathology compared to non-smokers peers. In addition, those who started smoking earlier than 13 years old have a higher risk of developing a mental illness in the future compared to those who started smoking daily after 14 years, ”said V.M. Ankylosing spondylitis.

No less vulnerable are people of middle and old age - in their case, the use of nicotine contributes to the development of cognitive impairment.

Smoking has an impact on the body at the genetic level, scientists say. It affects the rate of change of telomere length (end sections of chromosomes, consisting of a certain combination of nucleotides and protecting the DNA molecule from damage). The shortening of telomeres, which is also called the human biological clock, to a certain value leads to cell aging.