New analysis of smoking and schizophrenia suggests causal link

Cancer, emphysema, heart disease, schizophrenia.....and not only in smokers, but in those around them. Why are cigarettes still legal? Any other product that caused even a fraction of these tragedies would be recalled off the market, and the manufacturers would be indicted. What's so special about tobacco?

I always knew one had to be crazy to smoke tobacco.

What's so special about tobacco?

Tax revenues and a powerful tobacco lobby.

What's so special about tobacco?

I'm $ure you know what'$ $o $pecial. But, at the end of the day, tobacco companie$ can't force people to buy their product$. It'$ down to the individual, and any idiot nowaday$ know$ $moking i$ not good for you. You want to $moke it, then you pay for your own medical treatment, becau$e you'll get an illne$$ that would have been totally preventable.

Correlation doesn't equal cause. Poorer people tend to smoke more, but smoking isn't the main reason for their poverty, it's more to do with lower levels of education and the environment they grew up in.

@Scrote

Correlation doesn't equal cause.

No. But the article also mentions a possible mechanism relating to increased dopamine production.

For this study, McCabe’s team analysed rates of smoking in people presenting with their first episode of psychosis and found that 57% of these individuals were smokers. People with a first episode of psychosis were three times more likely to be smokers than those in the control groups.

I don't know, I'm really skeptical about this. Smoking may contributes as a stress reliefer for those who were highly disturbed by schizophrenic symptoms, so the likelihood of smoking, drinking, drugging, etc can be expected higher. The researchers should also look into the ratio of other substances consumed by test subjects.

This study explains many of the posts by smokers defending their addiction.

Smokers and the tobacco companies disputed the link between smoking and lung cancer for decades. Now of course they cannot dispute science on this matter. You smoke you are going to get lung cancer most likely. Same thing will be true of this study. Putting poison in your body and those around you causes damage. Period. I pity smokers.

You smoke you are going to get lung cancer most likely.

That's incorrect. Your likelihood increases if you are a smoker, but it's nowhere near 50% (ie - most likely):

A lifelong non-smoker has less than half of one percent chance of dieing of lung cancer by the age of 75. A smoker who quits smoking by age 40 has a 6% chance of dieing of lung cancer by age 75. If the smoker keeps smoking until they die or reach age 75, then they have a 16% cumulative risk of dieing of lung cancer.

Source: http://www.healthline.com/health-blogs/freedom-smoking/smoking-and-lung-cancer

CDC numbers state that people who smoke cigarettes are 15 to 30 times more likely to get lung cancer or die from lung cancer than people who do not smoke. Numbers above are wrong. 90% of lung cancer cases are due to smoking. Smoking kills people on average ten years sooner than non-smokers. Smoking causes many, many types of cancers not just lung cancer. Some smokers die before lung cancer can kill them. I pity smokers and those that try to defend smoking in any way. Smoking is a horrible way to die.

CDC numbers state that people who smoke cigarettes are 15 to 30 times more likely to get lung cancer or die from lung cancer than people who do not smoke. Numbers above are wrong. 90% of lung cancer cases are due to smoking. Smoking kills people on average ten years sooner than non-smokers. Smoking causes many, many types of cancers not just lung cancer. Some smokers die before lung cancer can kill them.

The first thing you said was that people who smoke will most likely get lung cancer. For your statement to be true, more than 50% of people who smoke their entire lives would need to get lung cancer. The numbers I showed show the rate to be 16%.

Then you showed how people who get lung cancer are most likely to be smokers. This is correct, but it's not the same as what you previously stated.

Smoking meaning you most likely will get lung cancer is not the same thing as those with lung cancer most likely being smokers.

but it's nowhere near 50% (ie - most likely)

I think if you add in all the diseases caused by cigarettes, including other forms of cancer (e.g., lip and tongue), circulatory diseases (e.g., angina, stroke, heart disease), and other lung diseases (e.g. emphysema), you might get close to a 50% risk of a smoking-related death. The figures are debatable of course, since all of these conditions may have other causes. There is also a small but significant number of deaths due to house fires and car crashes related to smoking (e.g., when the driver loses control after dropping a lighted cigarette into his crotch).

If smokers disbelieve the statistics and are willing to take the risk, good luck to them. My main concern is the effect of second-hand smoke. That is truly criminal.

Ah, Farmboy, you mention schizophrenia, at last.

Visiting care-in-the-community mental clinics in and around Birmingham, I noticed many of the patients sitting outside smoking. Does the act of smoking cause increasing social segregation, marginalization, alienation, aggravating the mental pressures brought to bear on schizophrenics?

@nandakandamanda

Does the act of smoking cause increasing social segregation, marginalization, alienation, aggravating the mental pressures brought to bear on schizophrenics?

Does the act of smoking cause increasing social segregation, marginalization, alienation, aggravating the mental pressures brought to bear on non-smokers? After all, we've been told for 50 years that smoking, including second-hand smoking is extremely dangerous. Yet until the last few years, non-smokers had to suck it up in public places, offices, restaurants, planes, trains, etc., or stay home. Apart from planes and trains and offices, that's still largely the case in Japan. I'm sure there's a significant number of people suffering from phobias, stress and mental conditions as a result.

It's sad if anti-smoking rules make life even more difficult for schizophrenics, but the risks of smoking are very real for smokers and others.

And in any case, the authors of the research described in the article seem to be suggesting a chemical rather than sociological link between smoking and schizophrenia.