Smokers with serious mental illness have their lives cut short by about 15 years, compared with people who have never smoked and who do not have serious mental illness, research from the University of Michigan shows.
They also die 10 years earlier than those with serious mental illness who have never smoked.
This means smoking may account for nearly two thirds of the overall difference in life expectancy between individuals with serious mental illness who smoke, and never smokers in the general population, says Jamie Tam, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Health Management and Policy at the U-M School of Public Health, who conducted the study.
“Smoking reduces life expectancy for everyone but we tend to underestimate the importance of smoking for people with comorbidities,” Tam said. “We know from existing research that people with mental illness live shorter lives, but what wasn’t known is how much of that is due to their mental illness and how much is due to the fact that many of them are smokers.”
Damn so this puts a damper on the “antipsychotics kill us” mythology. Smoking and the fact 47% of us suffer from substance abuse and suicides probably make up 95%+ of the disparity in life expectancy
It’s obviously an issue. However alongside increased life expectancy is the need to improve quality of life. What’s the point living an extra 15 years if your quality of life sucks.
I live with 36 other people at an assisted living center for the mentally ill. It’s surprising how often we get people who need breathing machines. We get a lot of people with COPD. One guy would be giving himself oxygen with one hand and smoking a cigarette in the other hand. He had the worst smoker’s cough I’ve ever heard. He sometimes would cough for ten minutes straight. Now he has got cancer, and it has spread to his liver. He is in some facility, waiting to die. I think what scared him the most about the whole deal was that he couldn’t smoke while he was in the hospital. He really was dependent on his cigarettes.
I’ve often wondered how much of the difference in life expectancy was caused by smoking. Now I guess I know, or at least have a strong indication. Thanks for posting the article.
smoking can be a light in the midst of darkness for those who have lost everything in life. That small moment of pleasure, that makes up for all the crap. I say this because of the way some mentally ill folks from the hospital I go to for appointments with my psychiatrist and therapist, and where I’ve been hospitalized, behave in regards to it. Some spend their days asking for cigarettes and money for coffee to passers-by. It gives them some meaning, something to thrive for.
Smoking has also been a great aid to me in the worse times, some days I would get out of bed just for the thought of being able to smoke a cigarette.
Misleading statistic. Of the 47% that die from cancer, heart disease and stroke; they dont know if that’s related to diabetes and high blood pressure or being over-weight.
15 yrs for mentally ill smokers vs 12 for normie smokers not a big difference. Maybe the 3 year difference is due to a lot of sz’s being heavy smokers, could be something else.
We have been described as dying 15 years earlier regardless anyways, what’s the big news.
