Smoking and mental health - NCSCT

Smoking among people with mental disorders 2
CIS-R 0–5
CIS-R 6–11
CIS-R 12–17
CIS-R 18+
0 20
40 60 80 100
Never
Ex ≤10 11–20 21+
Fig 2.4 Smoking status and daily cigarette consumption by increasing
severity of mental illness (Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Surveys (APMS),
2007 5 ). CIS-R, revised Clinical Interview Schedule.
indicate that they are no less likely to want to quit smoking. When asked whether
they would like to give up smoking altogether, 66% of all smokers in the HSE
responded positively, as did 69% of smokers taking a psychoactive medication,
71% of smokers scoring 3 or more on the GHQ-12 and 61% of smokers
reporting a longstanding mental health condition.
However, smokers with mental disorders were more likely to report that they
expected to find quitting difficult, and were less likely to expect to succeed, than
smokers without these disorders. When asked how easy or difficult they would
find it to go without cigarettes for a whole day, 55% of all smokers completing
the HSE reported that they would find it fairly or very difficult. A significantly
higher proportion, 79%, of smokers reporting a longstanding mental health
condition believed that they would find such abstinence fairly or very difficult, as
did 72% of smokers taking a psychoactive medication. Of smokers scoring 3 or
more on the GHQ-12, 62% reported that they would find quitting for a day
difficult, although this proportion was not significantly different from that in all
smokers (Fig 2.5).
This expectation of greater difficulty quitting smoking is consistent with the
observation of lower quit ratios in those with mental disorders in the HSE.
Among all HSE participants, approximately 56% of ever-smokers had quit
smoking by the time of the survey. However, although the quit ratio among
© Royal College of Physicians 2013 31