Scientists at Oxford University have found that quitting smoking can improve the mental health of people with mental health problems.
The journal JAMA Network Open indicates that in this study, researchers used data from a randomized clinical trial to assess the harmful effects of smoking during 2011-2015, which included 4260 participants, about half of whom suffered from mental disorders.
The researchers studied the effect of abstaining from smoking for 9-24 weeks. Study participants completed validated mental health questionnaires before and after quitting smoking. The experiment also included measuring the level of anxiety and the index of depression on a scale of clinical assessment from 0 to 21.
The average score among participants was 4.25 for anxiety and 2.44 for depression. But 24 weeks after quitting smoking, patients saw a significant improvement in symptoms. After adjusting for demographics and baseline variables, smoking cessation resulted in a reduction in both anxiety (minus 0.4 points) and depression (minus 0.47) compared to the smoking group.
Source: Linta. EN
