Sociodemographic and Clinical Associations between Nicotine Dependence and Mental Illness

Aims: To compare sociodemographic and clinical variables with nicotine dependence among psychiatric patients, hospitalized in a psychiatric unit in a general hospital.
Methodology: This is an exploratory study, undertaken in Brazil between August 2010 and February 2012, with 96 hospitalized carriers of mental disorders who were smokers. The socio-demographic and clinical data was obtained using the “Instrument for Identification of Smokers in a Psychiatric Unit in a General Hospital – ISPU”, devised by the researchers for the present study. The degree of nicotine dependence was obtained by the “Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence” (FTND). The data was subjected to descriptive and bivariate analysis.
Results: The majority of people with mental disorders (53.2%) had a high (29.2%) or very high (24%) degree of nicotine dependence. Higher degrees of dependence are associated with the schizophrenic, mood and personality disorders (p=.01), greater age (p=.006) and somatic comorbidities (p=.048). Moreover, there is a higher frequency of the very high degree of dependence among chronic patients and those with a greater number of hospitalizations.
Conclusion: Severity of nicotine dependence differs between patients with severe mental disorders (schizophrenia, mood and personality disorders) and other psychiatric patients. This study’s results are in line with the current measures of restriction of smoking in the health services and in the valuing of psycho-social rehabilitation with the reinsertion of people with mental disorders into the community. In this perspective, the need for educative and preventive actions for people with mental disorders and for the population in general, as well as for the preparation of mental health professionals to care for patients with severe mental disorders who are dependent on nicotine, is strengthened.