40 per cent of smokers mentally ill

The Daily Telegraph ^ | 12/11/07 | Tamara McLean

[LibWhacker]

PEOPLE with mental illness are three times more likely to smoke, and experts say not enough is being done to help this vulnerable group quit.

A new Access Economics report shows almost 1.3 million Australians with a mental illness are smokers, costing $33 billion a year.

SANE Australia, which commissioned the report, is calling for urgent action to introduce quit smoking programs and supports for people with a mental illness.

Executive director Barbara Hocking said smokers with a mental illness paid about $2.8 billion every year in tobacco taxes, but there was little evidence of equitable funding and few programs to help the large numbers who wanted to quit.

[rabscuttle385]

In other news, 100 percent of liberals are mentally ill.

[microgood]

Bad title. From the article it is 40% of mentally ill are smokers.

[Cementjungle]

So if smokers are forced to quit through taxation and legislation, fourty percent of them could become dangerous as they transition through that grumppy stage of withdrawel?

Sounds risky to me.

[JLS]

PEOPLE with mental illness are three times more likely to smoke, and experts say not enough is being done to help this vulnerable group quit.

What stupidity. The people with mental illness may be self medicating. Certainly that the anti-depressant Zyban / Wellbutrin has a side effect that some people treated with it stop smoking has to indicate that possibility. Not to mention that if they have metal health issues help with that immediate concern is more important than help with quiting smoking.

[WildcatClan]

Right. :)

[TheLion]

I think all smokers should immediately quit. That will make basket cases out of the government.

[CindyDawg]

I’m not sure that taking the MI’s smokes away is a good idea.

[Sapper26]

So there’s a 40% chance Obama is nuts?

[Aria]

LOL...that struck me funny!

[Dumpster Baby]

I only light up when the voices tell me to.

[LibWhacker]

Just realized... If smokers quit, that’ll lead directly to an increase in insanity amongst non-smokers! Why would libs want that? ;-)

[iowamark]

[CarrotAndStick]

Cancer and schizophrenia linked

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cancer_and_schizophrenia_linked/articleshow/2608497.cms

WASHINGTON: A series of studies have revealed that there is a genetic link between schizophrenia and cancer.

Schizophrenia is a biological condition that affects a person’s ability to think clearly, distinguish reality from fantasy, to manage emotions, make decisions and relate to others.

The studies, led by Dr. Daniel Weinberger of National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH), and American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) member, provide a possible scientific explanation for lower rates of cancer among patients with schizophrenia, despite having poor diets and high rates of smoking, and their parents.

Researchers emphasised that many of the genes associated with schizophrenia were the same as the genes associated with cancer, but that the cells that had these genes used them in opposite ways in the two disorders.

While cancer results from changes in the genes that cause cells to go into metabolic overdrive and multiply rapidly, those same genes cause cells in schizophrenia to slow to a crawl.

“We found that many of the same genes are involved in schizophrenia as in cancer, but in a yin and yang way. This will provide critical insight into the molecular structure of schizophrenia,” said Weinberger.

Some of the genes showing this yin-yang effect include NRG1, AKT1, PIK3, COMT, PRODH and ErbB4. While these genes can’t be used to predict exactly who will develop these diseases, Weinberger said that they could be used to help determine risk.

Dr. Amanda Law of the University of Oxford, who heads one of the teams working at the NIMH, explored specific genetic pathways that cells use to make basic decisions about their development and their fate.

“This is about basic decision making by cells—whether to multiply, move or change their basic architecture,” said Law.

“Cancer and schizophrenia may be strange bedfellows that have similarities at the molecular level. The differences lie in how cells respond to external stimuli: in cancer the molecular system functions to speed up the cell and in schizophrenia the system is altered in such a way that causes the cell to slow down,” Law added.

She said that selective targeting of these pathways might be a potential target in developing treatments for schizophrenia.

“It’s very curious that a brain disorder associated with very complicated human behaviour has at a genetic and cellular level a striking overlap with cancer, a very non-behaviour related disorder. Understanding these pathways might provide us with some new strategies for thinking about cancer,” said Weinberger.

Weinberger said that future research involves using this information to search for therapeutic insights that can reverse these processes, with implications not only for treatment of schizophrenia, but also maybe for cancer as well.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1936975/posts

[Berlin_Freeper]

At least the MI have an excuse of why they smoke.

[Sapper26]

Now that I think about it, maybe he’s using Oprah to get to Dr Phil.

[Just A Nobody]

Good morning ping!

You're gonna love this! ;*)

[LukeL]

If they are calling things like anxiety, panic disorder, and phobias as being mentally ill, then I will believe the headline. And as usually you can use statistics to prove anything. Ala the famous pizza connenction in NY

[Looking4Truth]

In other news, 100 percent of liberals are mentally ill.

Your post took me from thoroughly disgusted after wading in to the thread to LMFAOLAF in a millisecond.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

Animals can be driven crazy by placing too many
in too small a pen.
Homo sapiens is the only animal that voluntarily
does this to himself.

LAZARUS LONG