No butts – it’s time to help people with mental health conditions quit smoking Ben Harris, Victoria University; Holly Beswick, Deakin University; Jenny Bowman, University of Newcastle, and Kate Bartlem, University of Newcastle Australians with mental health conditions are more than twice as likely to be smokers as the general population. About 22% of people with a mental health condition smoke daily compared to a national rate under 13%. And the more severe your illness, the more likely you are to smoke. For example, about 60-70% of people with psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia smoke. We don’t have clear evidence for why this is the case, but there are several theories. These include that people with mental health conditions may smoke to self-medicate or to cope with social exclusion. People with mental health conditions are also more likely to have lower levels of education and higher levels of unemployment, which are accepted risk factors for smoking. Despite huge gains in getting Australians to quit since the turn of the century (22% of Australians smoked in 2001), people with a mental illness appear to have been left behind. They are a big group to overlook. More than 4 million Australians are…
