Smoking

[sh777au]

Hello...My name is Simon & I'm relatively new to the board......I suffer from Paranoid Psychosis & Depression & I was wondering how many of you smoke cigarettes? I smoke way too heavy & on top of that, I suffer from Asthma & I wish I could give up. I was reading a book on Paranoia & it stated that a lot of Paranoid Pschyzophrenics smoke cigarettes.
I've found that every time I have had a Psychotic episode I have increased my consumption of Cigarettes. That is just my experience....


Yours Sincerely,

[Roxann]

Hi Simon. I am Roxann and I am Bipolar and also smoke. I chain smoke when I'm manic. I find that after a bout of mania or after trying to quit smoking, I end up smoking more than ever. I would love to quit smoking too. As I just relasped on my drug of choice and am starting over I don't think I can quit drugs and cigs at the same time though. When I hit my 6 month sobriety anniversary, I have promised myself I will quit smoking.

Good luck Simon, I hope you can quit successfully!!

[pedagogue]

I know the smoking rate for schizophrenics can be as high as 75-85%. There are a number of factors for this which include: chemical benefits, solitary act or social act (depending on the person), etc.

*edit*

The rate is actually 80-90%: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-wds021003.php

Nicotine produces rewarding and aversive motivational effects in humans and other animal species. Here, the authors report that the mammalian ventral tegmental area (VTA) represents a critical neural substrate for the mediation of both the rewarding and aversive properties of nicotine. They demonstrate that direct infusions of nicotine into the VTA can produce both rewarding and aversive motivational effects. While the rewarding effects of higher doses of nicotine were not attenuated by dopamine (DA) receptor blockade, blockade of mesolimbic DA signalling with either systemic or intra-nucleus accumbens (NAc) neuroleptic pretreatment potentiated the sensitivity to nicotine's rewarding properties over a three-order-of-magnitude dose range. Furthermore, the behavioural effects of lower doses of intra-VTA nicotine were reversed, switching the motivational valence of nicotine from aversive to rewarding. These results suggest that blockade of mesolimbic DA signalling induced by neuroleptic medications may block selectively the aversive properties of nicotine, thus increasing the vulnerability to nicotine's rewarding and addictive properties by inducing a unique, drug-vulnerable phenotype.

Citation source: Molecular Psychiatry 2003 Volume 8, number 1, pages 50-59.

The author is pretty much saying that because of the type of medication a schizophrenic would be on (nueroleptic), the 'good' effects of the nicotine are better realized because the adverse effects would be lessened or suppressed.

-pedagogue

[sh777au]

Thanks Pedagogue!! That information was very interesting & at least I know that I'm not the only person with mental illness who smokes cigarettes.....Thanks for replying...

Yours Sincerely,

[pedagogue]

Just to add one last thing....based on the above researcher's findings, you could probably hypothesize that people on other medications that effect Dopamine (DA) in a similar way....will also have similar effects. Dopamamine (DA) is a common neurotransmitter that is targeted by various medications, so these effects may be more prevelant than just for schizophrenics on nueroleptics.

Ok.....I'll stop nerding the thread up. Feel free to ask about other areas of smoking and etc...and we can talk about that. (It is not my area of study, but interesting none the less)

[Erratic]

sh777au im bpd,anxiety and i smoke a lot aswell,i only started to smoke when i was 22 i think..

my uncle is schizophrenic and he doesnt smoke.. guess he one of the ones who dont.. thanks peda thats really interesting read.

[liveweyerd]

Very interesting! Thank you. I am on anti-depressants and smoke. My husband has set Monday as his quit day and I want to be supportive. I don't know whether that means that I will go outside to smoke (which would lessen my habit) or attempt to quit at the same time. In the last week I found that chewing on twizzlers helped me cut down. Until I ate all the twizzlers.

I also remember reading somewhere that the propensity to certain things such as smoking or being overweight is also passed down in DNA.

[sh777au]

I didn't start to smoke heavy until I was about 24, after I had a psychotic episode.....Thanks for the feedback Erratic, Liveweyerd & Pedagogue......

Yours Sincerely,

[it's_me]

I seem to recall seeing on TLC, or Discovery channel (or one of those) a special where they were asking that same question, particularly for Depression sufferers. They were tracking manic depressive young adults in UK and their smoking habits and trying to figure out the association with depression and nicotine.

I have also heard considerations for using nicotine patchs as part of Depression therapy on the radio.

So, I think there is some connection, whether fully understood or not.

[sh777au]

Very interesting, It's me......I would have liked to have seen that documentary...
I enjoy watching documentaries on the Discovery Channel & History Channels.

Yours Sincerely,

[shutterbug]

okay...this is an old thread that i just found and think it's interesting since i didn't start smoking in my 20's around the time of my first bipolar episode and i am an extreme asthmatic too.

I really want to quit and need to because i've been diagnosed with early stage emphazima (and i'm only 29), but especially while i'm still going through this major depression....smoking feels like it's the only thing that i have control over (which i don't or else i could quit right)....but it's also the only constant pleasure that i get in my life...and my stress level is so high that i feel the urge to smoke is stronger?

Besides myself...you are the 4th person i've known of to be a smoker and an asthmatic. funny....i use to have asthma attacks just by being near someone else smoking and would gripe at my step-grandpa not to smoke while i was in the car cus i was so allergic to it...HA!!!!!!!!! No he and my mom put me down sometimes for being that way as a kid and then growing up to become a smoker. Anyway....interesting thread.