Adults with Mental Illness twice as likely to use tobacco

That is the title of this article that I am writing about.  Smoking is a hard thing to quit. “Adults with mental illness are twice as likely to use tobacco as adults without mental illness, according to a new American report.  The report found 37.8 percent of adults with mental illness smoke, compared to 17.3 percent of adults without mental illness.  Nearly one-half of adults in the study who experienced mental illness reported smoking in the last 30 days. Smoking rates are highest among those with serious mental illness, multiple disorders and substance use disorders.  Kansas adults with mental illness are twice as likely to use tobacco as adults without mental illness, according to a new report by RTI international and funded by the Kansas Health Foundation.” I never understood why it has a calming effect for people with mental illness.

When I was in my mental illness I do know that I smoked more I do not know why although I did.   In fact I train smoked cigarettes. “The smoking rate among adults with mental illness remains high despite progress made in tobacco control and the decrease of smoking among the general population.’ Said Betty Brown, research health analyst at RTI and lead author of the study.  ‘As a result, people with mental illness are at an increased risk of negative health, financial, and social outcomes associated with their tobacco use.” I quit sixteen years ago. I was a heavy smoker and probably heard this story.  My granddaughter was about to be born and my daughter who was living with her mother told her mother that she had to quit for the baby.  Instead I wanted to babysit my granddaughter and I quit instead.  I went to my doctor and he prescribed Wellbutrin.  It had so many side effects that in a month I gave up on the Wellbutrin and smoking.
I know others have a hard time quitting.  If it was not for the side effects that kept my mind off of smoking I probably would have COPD or something it was getting that bad at thirty five years old I was coughing and I was not sick. “Our findings emphasize the importance of collaboration between the mental health and tobacco control communities to provide cessation support to individuals with mental illness who use tobacco,’ Brown said. ‘To address the issue of tobacco use among those with mental illness and the challenges associated with making progress toward a solution, the Kansas Health Foundation has launched a new effort to address tobacco use among Kansans with serious mental illness through its Fellows leadership program.” I know it is hard quitting although it can be done.  I know if I would not have had so many side effects from the medication I probably could not have quit.  The money I save and also getting to have my grandkids over whenever I want is worth it.
The article ends with: “Through the years we’ve seem significant decreases in the percentage of Americans who smoke, but we’ve done very little to make strides in decreasing those rates among people with mental illness.’ said Dr. Jeff Willett, vice president for programs at the Kansas Health Foundation.  People with mental illness smoke at nearly double the rate of the general population, we see this collaborative effort being a call to action to both the mental health and tobacco control communities.”  As much as I loved to smoke I never thought I would quit. Although the time came and things had changed and I quit because something was more important and it was costing me plenty to smoke all my money not spent on groceries but cigarettes.  My parents that supported my tobacco use throughout all my years of being locked up could not understand why I did not quit before but the time was not

Severe Mental Illness Ups Risk for Substance Abuse

That is the title of this article I am writing this blog about. “A new study finds substance abuse is higher among individuals with severe mental illness. Researchers discovered people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and similar conditions have a higher risk for substance use—especially cigarette smoking – and protective factors usually associated with lower rates of substance use do not exist in severe mental illness.  Studies exploring the link between substance use disorders and other mental illnesses have typically not included people with severe psychotic illnesses. Estimates based on past studies suggest that people diagnosed with mood or anxiety disorders are about twice as likely as the general population to also suffer from a substance use disorder.  Researchers used data from the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to show that close to 8.4 million adults in the United States have both a mental and substance use disorder.”  That is a lot of people that have mental illness and substance use disorder. It takes a person wanting to quit in being able too.  You have to see that not everyone always does substances and quitting only helps you to know yourself.

People do not believe by smoking it does not harm them it will only happen to someone else they will develop lung problems not me. “However, only 7.9 percent of people receive treatment for both conditions, and 53.7 percent receive no treatment at all, the statistics indicate.  Drug use impacts many of the same brain circuits that are disrupted in severe mental disorders such as schizophrenia, said, National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Director, Dr. Nora D. Volkow.  While we cannot always prove a connection or causality, we do know that certain mental disorders are risk factors for subsequent substance use disorders, and vice versa. In the current study, 9,142 people diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder with psychotic features, and 10,195 controls matched to participants according to geographic region, were selected suing Genomic Psychiatry Cohort program. Mental disorders diagnoses were confirmed using the Diagnostic Interview for Psychosis and Affective Disorder (DI-PAD) and controls were screened to verify the absence of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder in themselves or close family members. The Di-PAD was also used for all participants to determine substance use rates.”  It must be hell to live with both substance use and a mental illness.  When I was in my mental illness the farthest thing in my mind was getting high.  It was hard enough trying to figure what was going wrong with me.
The article goes on to say: “Compared to controls, people with severe mental illness were about 4 times more likely to be heavy alcohol users (four or more drinks per day); 3.5 times more likely to use marijuana regularly (21 times per year); and 4.6 times more likely to use other drugs at least 10 times in their lives. The greatest increases were seen with tobacco, with patients with severe mental illness 5.1 times more likely to be daily smokers.  The association is a concern because smoking is the leading cause preventable death in the United States.  In addition, certain protective factors often associated with belonging to certain racial or ethnic groups – or being female – did not exist in participants with severe mental illness.  In the general population, women have lower substance use rates than men, and Asian-Americans have lower substance use rates than white Americans, but we do not see these differences among people with severe mental illness, said Dr. Sarah Hartz, first author on the study.  We also saw that among young people with severe mental illness, the smoking rates were as high as smoking rates in middle-aged adults, despite success in lowering smoking rates for young people in the general population.  Previous research has shown that people with schizophrenia have a shorter life expectancy than the general population.  Chronic cigarette smoking has been suggested as a major contributing factor to higher morbidity and mortality from malignancy as well as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.  These findings indicate that the rates of substance use in people with severe psychosis may be underestimated.  Researchers call for additional investigation to improve understanding of the association between substance use and psychotic disorders, so that both conditions can be treated effectively.   Lower life expectancy that would make me think about changing my life if I had something to live for.  I am glad that I do.  I told this story of how I was coughing pretty much when I was smoking and it did not stop until I quit.  I did it for my granddaughter not because it was killing me already.

Alcohol, Tobacco, Drug Use Far Higher in Severely Mentally Ill

That is the title of this article I am writing about. “In the largest ever assessment of substance use among people with severe psychiatric illness, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Southern California have found that rates of smoking, drinking and drug use are significantly higher among those who have psychotic disorders than among those in the general population.  The finding is of particular concern because individuals with severe mental illness are more likely to die younger than people without severe psychiatric disorders.  These patients tend to pass away much younger, with estimates ranging from 12 to 25 years earlier than individuals in the general population, said first author Sarah M. Hartz, MD, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University.  They don’t die from drug overdoses or commit suicide -- the kinds of things you might suspect in severe psychiatric illness.  They die from heart disease and cancer, problems caused by chronic alcohol and tobacco use.”  Those two things are a wakeup call to stop using and live a long life.  Twenty three years sober is what I have in April it will be twenty four and I do not miss going to jail never knowing what I did the night before.  Fifteen years not smoking which I do not miss the high prices or the smell.

We all want to live a little bit longer if we can.  “The study analyzed smoking, drinking and drug use in nearly 20,000 people.  That included 9,142 psychiatric patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder – an illness characterized by psychotic symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions, and mood disorders such as depression.  The investigators also assessed nicotine use, heavy drinking, heavy marijuana use and recreational drug use in more than 10,000 healthy people with mental illness.  The researchers found that 30 percent of those with severe psychiatric illness engaged in binge drinking, defined as drinking four servings of alcohol at one time.  In comparison, the rate of binge drinking in the general population is 8 percent.  Among those with mental illness, more than 75 percent were regular smokers.  This compares with 33 percent of those in the control group who smoked regularly.   There were similar findings with heavy marijuana use: 50 percent of people with psychotic disorders used marijuana regularly, versus 18 percent in the general population.  Half of those with mental illness also use other illicit drugs, while the rate of recreational drug use in the general population is 12 percent.”  It would be nice to know if they continued doing what they always did or did they just start after their mental illness.

The article goes on to say: “I take care of a lot of patients with severe mental illness, many of whom are sick enough that they are on disability, said Hartz.  And it’s always surprising when I encounter a patient who doesn’t smoke or hasn’t used drugs or had alcohol problems.  Hartz said another striking finding from the study is that once a person develops a psychotic illness, protective factors such as race and gender don’t have their typical influence.  Previous research indicates that Hispanics and Asians tend to have lower rates of substance abuse that European Americans.  The same is true of women, who tend to smoke, drink and use illicit drugs less often than men.  We see protective effects in these subpopulations, Hartz explained.  But once a person has a severe mental illness, that seems to trump everything.  That’s particularly true, she said, with smoking.  During the last few decades, smoking rates have declined in the general population.  People over age 50 are much more likely than younger people to have been regular smokers at some point in their lives.  For example, about 40 percent of those over 50 used to smoke regularly.  Among those under 30, fewer than 20 percent have been regular smokers.  But among the mentally ill, the smoking rate is more than 75 percent, regardless of the patient’s age.  With public health efforts, we’ve effectively cut smoking rates in half in healthy people, but in the severely mentally ill, we haven’t made a dent at all, she said.”  With drinking I believe you have to hit your bottom to quit.  I do not care how many A.A meeting you go to until something happens that is too much for you it will not be successful.  For smoking to quit you have to have a reason other than the cost.  You have to it is not an option to smoke any more.
My major in college was a drug and alcohol counselor.  I went on to go for my Master’s in Public Administration because I could not help a teenager that I believe they were suspending wrongly so I quit and went on to my get my Masters instead.  “Until recently, smoking was permitted in most psychiatric hospitals and mental wards.  Hartz believes that many psychiatrists decided that their sickest patients had enough problems without having to worry about quitting smoking too.  There were also concerns about potential dangers from using nicotine-replacement therapy, while continuing to smoke since smoking is so prevalent among the mentally ill. Recent studies, however, have found those concerns were overblown.  The question, she said, is whether being more aggressive in trying to curb nicotine, alcohol and substance use in patients with severe psychiatric illness can lengthen their lives. Hartz believes health professionals who treat the mentally ill need to do a better job of trying to get them to stop smoking, drinking and using drugs.  Some studies have shown that although we psychiatrists know that smoking, drinking and substance use are major problems among the mentally ill, we often don’t ask our patients about those things, she said.  We can do better, but we also need to develop new strategies because many interventions to reduce smoking, drinking and drug use that have worked in other patient populations don’t seem to be very effective in these psychiatric patients.”  It is probably because they say my life is messed up right now and that is all I have.  I am lucky I have things that I want and a family that I love and want to succeed so that helps me.  Also I know I touch alcohol again and it is back to prison because it will be soon that I do something stupid.