Survey: More than half of psychiatric patients use vaping devices to quit smoking

Blue Hole New Consumption reported on August 3, citing Vapingpost, that a current study aims to determine whether e-cigarettes can provide an effective way to help people with poor mental health quit smoking. Previous research has shown that mental illness is associated with higher smoking rates.

This cross-sectional study, titled “Use of E-cigarettes and Associated Factors Among Smokers With Severe Mental Illness,” included 526 adult smokers with a recorded diagnosis of mental illness. The data collected showed that most participants (70.3%) had tried e-cigarettes.

Most importantly, among those who had tried e-cigarettes, more than half (54.6%) reported that the reason was to quit smoking, while 13.9% said the reason was to reduce smoking. Interestingly, though not surprisingly, those with GCSE qualifications or above—that is, people with higher levels of education—were more likely to have attempted to quit smoking using e-cigarettes within the past six months.

Based on this, the researchers concluded that further study is needed on the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid for people with mental illness. In fact, previous research has already suggested a similar link, and psychiatrists in Australia have long argued that lifting the ban could improve patients’ quality of life.

In 2017, the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists (RANZCP) also pointed out that people with mental illness are more likely to smoke than the general healthy public. Therefore, they explained, this group would benefit greatly from access to safer alternatives, which would at least reduce their likelihood of developing preventable smoking-related diseases.

The organization said: “E-cigarettes provide a safer nicotine delivery pathway for those who are unable to quit smoking, thereby minimizing the harms caused by smoking and reducing some health disparities. Therefore, the RANZCP supports a cautious approach that takes into account the significant health benefits these products may offer.”

RANZCP board member Professor David Castle once pointed out that current regulations are targeted at people with mental health problems. In terms of the data, 70% of people with schizophrenia and 61% of those with bipolar disorder are smokers, compared with 16% among people in good mental health.

He said: “This is not to say that smoking has been banned. Cigarettes are available and legal, though with restrictions, and we would apply similar restrictions to e-cigarettes.” He added, “The literature shows that using e-cigarettes can greatly reduce the risk of cancer, because what actually increases that risk are the aromatic hydrocarbons and other substances in the paper and tobacco. Nicotine, as we are discussing it here, is a chemical delivered in vapor form, so the situation is entirely different.”