In an analysis of 20,000 people, about half of which were severely mentally ill, researchers found:
In the severely mentally ill group -- 30 percent engaged in binge drinking, 75 percent smoked cigarettes, 50 percent 
used marijuana, half used other illicit drugs.
In the control group -- 8 percent engaged in binge drinking, 33 percent smoked cigarettes, 18 percent used marijuana, 12 percent used other illicit drugs.
The question, [first author Sarah M. Hartz, MD, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University] 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."
medicalxpress.com/news/2013-12-alcohol-tobacco-drug-higher-severely.html
The publication in JAMA Psychiatry.
Comments (0)