Smoking And Mental Illness: Schizophrenia Risk Increases With Cigarettes

New findings published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry reveal that smoking could increase the risk of developing certain mental illnesses.

Researchers at King's College London discovered that daily smokers were up to three times more likely to develop schizophrenia.

"While it is always hard to determine the direction of causality, our findings indicate that smoking should be taken seriously as a possible risk factor for developing psychosis, and not dismissed simply as a consequence of the illness," researcher Dr. James MacCabe, said in a news release.

For the study, researchers analyzed data on 15,000 smokers and 273,000 non-smokers collected during 61 observational studies, finding that 57 percent of people experiencing their first episode of psychosis were smokers. Furthermore, they discovered that people who smoked every day also developed disorders about a year earlier than those who do not.

"Excess dopamine is the best biological explanation we have for psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia," concluded Sir Robin Murray, a professor of psychiatric research at King's College London. "It is possible that nicotine exposure, by increasing the release of dopamine, causes psychosis to develop."

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