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About 80 or 90 percent of individuals with schizophrenia smoke. In general, the mentally ill individuals have a much higher rate of smoking than other populations. Despite the deadliness of cigarettes, this crowd at large possesses little ability (or desire) to quit.

In addition to those with schizophrenia, this issue is pervasive among individuals with bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder. All said, the mentally ill account for around 45% of cigarettes sold in the United States — and about half of the 400,000 smoking-related deaths each year.

Electronic cigarettes may be able to change that. While this can be said of electronic cigarettes for any part of the smoking community, the mentally ill seem more capable of benefiting from electronic cigarettes for a number of reasons.

Here’s a couple points to that end.

Individuals with mental illness can’t often make significant changes to their behavior. Smoking is a rather embedded habit. Many mentally ill individuals can’t dramatically shift their habits in the way that most nicotine replacement options (patches, lozenges, etc.) would require. Electronic cigarettes certainly aren’t the exact same thing, but they do provide something close. If nothing else, they provide a new ritual rather than the absence of one.

Electronic cigarettes don’t add new agents that might conflict with current medications. Many mentally ill individuals take drugs for their condition — or at least have drugs on hand for when things get bad. Pharmaceutical cessation agents (like Chantix) often have significant effect on body and brain chemistry. Chantix is a good example. There are reports of normal individuals taking Chantix experiencing night terrors, rage, mood swings, and even suicide. Drugs like this can’t generally be combined with other medications with any reliable expectation of what the outcome will be. Electronic cigarettes offer only nicotine. So they appear to be safer for any patient that would otherwise be smoking (See also: Electronic cigarettes and schizophrenia).

A healthier body often leads to a healthier mind . Electronic cigarettes aren’t going to cure schizophrenia, bipolar, or any of the other issues a mentally ill individual might have. However, a lot of scientific evidence suggested that when the human body as a whole is made healthier, the mind too gets healthier. Getting a mentally ill individual to quit smoking is often so difficult that many caretakers eventually just overlook the habit and accept the damage it will do. Many individuals that have transitioned to electronic cigarettes, however, report better ability to breath, exercise, taste, and smell. Quitting nicotine is not nearly as important as quitting smoking. Electronic cigarettes make that possible.

A study in Italy early last year took a small sample of 14 smoking patients with schizophrenia and gave them electronic cigarettes. At the one year mark from the beginning of the study, 7 participants had cut from a median number of 30 cigarettes per day to a median of 15 per day. Two individuals in the study reported complete abstinence from conventional cigarettes. But most importantly, neither positive nor negative symptoms of schizophrenia increased following smoking reduction or cessation using electronic cigarettes.

While more study is needed to be conclusive, this suggests that use of electronic cigarettes as a harm mitigation or cessation method most likely comes without the psychological effects common to other (currently approved) therapies. For even more on the topic, you can check out a very interesting article from the Pacific Standard.

In the long run, electronic cigarettes may become the product of choice for doctors, caretakers, and family looking to help ween smoking individuals with mental illness off tobacco.