Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder
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Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder
#2[deleted]
Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder
#3Quitting is the best decision I have ever made (the worst decision I have ever made is starting). I started off by vaping - although based on recent research I wonder if that was at all safer than smoking - and working my way down to 0% nicotine fluid over a few years. That wasn't too hard (probably 4-5 days of mild cravings at most once I switched to 0%), the oral fixation provided by vaping was seemingly enough to fool my brain. Things went really poorly when I tried to quit the 0% fluid, nicotine patches used per-instructions were the savior. I would have cravings for a few hours after each dosage decrease, but did have a test of willpower when after quitting the patches (possibly 2 weeks). I kept some patches around, just in case (you don't want to revert all the way to a cigarette if your cravings get the better of you), but never used them. After about 2 years I stopped getting cravings in all situations (social and drinking being the worst). The advertised benefits of quitting are quite real - once you start reaping the rewards the cravings are easy to deal with ("this goes away if I smoke").
I also quit drinking at the start of this year, on a whim. The effects aren't as pronounced as quitting smoking, but I have much deeper emotional reserves when things get difficult. I have also done more research, and it's scary what even a single drink a week (which counts as "chronic usage" if you are doing you own research) will do to your body.
Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder
#4> Since this research shows that people hardly ever start smoking cigarettes after the age of 20, the team poses the idea that it could be beneficial to raise the age limit for buying them.
Interesting, the recent tobacco age limit increase in the US from 18 to 21 should help.
Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder
#5I don't think this paper actually disentangles the causation direction. It's just another study showing that people with mental problems tend to like smoking. The 20 year gap between starting smoking and hospitalization they're talking about leaves a lot to be desired.
The most surprising thing to me is that they managed to find an n=131,140 of people in the system with enough genetic testing coverage to calculate the polygenetic scores for the smoking models they used. That many people had detailed gene sequencing done and in accessible public databases?
Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder
#6> Since this research shows that people hardly ever start smoking cigarettes after the age of 20, the team poses the idea that it could be beneficial to raise the age limit for buying them. Interesting, the recent tobacco age limit increase in the US from 18 to 21 should help.
I strongly disagree with this. If we're going to raise the age then it has to be across the board. 21 to be tried as an adult, 21 to be drafted, 21 to vote, etc. Disenfranchising legal adults because of possible 20 years* in the future crime (hospitalization for mental health around ~40yo) is very immoral.
* See: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/acps.13601 fig 1.
Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder
#7Quitting is the best decision I have ever made (the worst decision I have ever made is starting). I started off by vaping - although based on recent research I wonder if that was at all safer than smoking - and working my way down to 0% nicotine fluid over a few years. That wasn't too hard (probably 4-5 days of mild cravings at most once I switched to 0%), the oral fixation provided by vaping was seemingly enough to…
Can you cite anything about a single drink a week?
Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder
#8This study seems like it is just yet again confirming the correlation. Since they aren't performing any intervention, all they can do is statistical analysis to show the strength of that correlation.
I am not convinced by the argument that people starting to smoke long before their first mental health hospitalization means anything since mental health problems tend to start long before hospitalization.
Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder
#9I don't think this paper actually disentangles the causation direction. It's just another study showing that people with mental problems tend to like smoking. The 20 year gap between starting smoking and hospitalization they're talking about leaves a lot to be desired. The most surprising thing to me is that they managed to find an n=131,140 of people in the system with enough genetic testing coverage to calculate th…
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Re: Smoking cigarettes doubles the risk of developing depression, bipolar disorder
#10Smoking increases risk of all cause mortality by 79% over non-smokers [0]. This means that your probability of dying by any cause in any time period is 79% higher if you smoke than of you didn’t smoke. If you’re not that worried about bpd or depression, perhaps you’ll consider all-cause-mortality.