A growing number of studies have linked smoking with poor mental health. Several of these have shown that patients with major depression are more likely to smoke than are members of the general population. These studies also reveal the influence of major depression on smoking cessation.
A St. Louis survey, carried out in early 1980, contains information on both psychiatric diagnosis and smoking for more than 3,000 individuals. The survey confirms that major depression is more common among smokers than among nonsmokers (6.6 percent versus 2.9 percent) and that smokers with a lifetime history of major depression are less likely to succeed in quitting smoking than are smokers without such a history (14 percent versus 28 percent).
The data also show that individuals with a lifetime history of depression are more likely to have smoked at any time in their lives (76 percent) than are those without such a history (52 percent). Nicotine dependence is especially prevalent among alcohol and drug abusers. In fact, more than 80 percent of alcoholics are smokers, as are more than 50 percent of psychiatric patients.
