Ongoing tobacco abstinence in smokers with serious mental illness reduces risk of heart attack

SzAdmin · April 6, 2016, 4:26pm

CONCLUSIONS:

Sustained tobacco abstinence reduced 10-year cardiovascular risk in outpatients with serious mental illness despite significant post cessation weight gain and high prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.

Source:

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Weight gain and 10-year cardiovascular risk with sustained tobacco abstinence in smokers with serious mental illness: a subgroup analysis of a randomized trial.

AN Thorndike, ED Achtyes, C Cather, S Pratt, GN Pachas, SS Hoeppner and AE Evins, The Journal of clinical psychiatry, Mar 2016

People with serious mental illness die earlier than those without mental illness, largely from cardiovascular disease due to high rates of smoking and obesity. The objective of this study was to determine whether the metabolic effects of postcessation weight gain among smokers with serious mental illness attenuated the cardiovascular benefit of tobacco abstinence.A subgroup analysis was conducted of 65 outpatient smokers with DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder from 10 community mental health centers in 6 states who enrolled between March 2008-April 2012 and completed a trial of varenicline for tobacco abstinence. The intervention included a 12-week open-label phase with varenicline followed by a 40-week randomized, placebo-controlled phase in 87 participants who achieved 12-week abstinence. Main outcome measures were smoking status and change from baseline in weight and 10-year Framingham cardiovascular risk score at end of intervention (week 52).At week 52, 65 participants completed follow-up (33 abstinent; 32 relapsed). At baseline, the 2 groups did not differ in body mass index (mean = 31 kg/m(2)), blood pressure, serum glucose, or diagnoses of diabetes (31%) and hypertension (34%). Abstinent participants were older and had a higher mean baseline Framingham risk score (14.2% vs 10.3%, P = .002). At week 52, abstinent participants gained more weight than relapsed participants (4.8 vs 1.2 kg, P = .048) and, as a result of quitting smoking, had a greater reduction in Framingham risk score (-7.6% vs 0.0%, P < .001). There was no effect of study drug assignment on weight or Framingham risk score.Sustained tobacco abstinence reduced 10-year cardiovascular risk in outpatients with serious mental illness despite significant postcessation weight gain and high prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension.Clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT00621777.

everhopeful · April 6, 2016, 7:49pm

That’s more or less what a doctor told me once. I didn’t realise there was such a strong relationship between cardiovascular disease and smoking until then.

Resilient1 · April 6, 2016, 8:05pm

i’m glad i quit, it was really bad for me and now i hope to live an extra twenty years because of that

pansdisease · April 7, 2016, 3:26am

Still smoking as much as possible.

The chest pains are becoming more and more frequent and at times intense.

If i went i wouldn’t really care, not now. I need the rest. This interdimensional stuff is very scary and intense.

Resilient1 · April 7, 2016, 3:54am

thats a ■■■■ way of looking at things

Polymorphed · April 7, 2016, 4:05am

You acknowledge that you are dependent on a substance that is proven to significantly increase probability of disease and death, but you weigh this up against quitting as a lesser of the two evils; how about a compromise?

Look into e-cigs. In recent times it has become possible for one to personally control the amount of nicotine concentrated into the other liquids (including a myriad of flavorings) that make it possible to vaporise effectively and safely. You can obtain the liquids separately and mix to taste - this can involve (but doesn’t have to) a conscientious effort towards slowly reducing the amount of nicotine. You can do it slowly enough that “the addiction” is unaware. Even if you didn’t make any effort to reduce the nicotinic concentrations, it is healthier to vaporise than to combust - more economical too.

No point rushing your demise when there are healthier alternatives that won’t subtract from the therapeutic value of smoking nor take away any of your own control over that. Give it some thought Vaping is actually quite fun as a result of all the personalisation options.