“World No Tobacco Day” is an annual awareness day that takes place on May 31st and this year’s theme is “Tobacco, a threat to development” according to the World Health Organization. Tobacco threatens all living species including humans, animals, plants and our entire environment. Approximately 15 percent of adults in the United States are cigarette smokers and tobacco use remains the single largest preventable cause of death and disease in the United States. Cigarette smoking kills approximately 500,000 Americans each year and smoking-related illnesses cost more than $300 billion each year. It is known to cause lung cancer, mouth and oral cancer, colon cancer, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), premature aging and other chronic illnesses in humans and studies have shown that tobacco use has a strong correlation with mental health disorders.

What is tobacco and how is it linked to poor health?

Tobacco is a green agricultural leafy crop that is picked, processed rolled and dried to be used for smoking tobacco in the form of cigarettes and cigars or in the form of smokeless tobacco to be used as chewing tobacco and snuff. Nicotine is a naturally addictive stimulant in tobacco that is responsible for all the psychological responses in the body and the release of dopamine, which triggers the “reward center” in the brain producing a pleasant, happy feeling. Tobacco smoke also contains over 4,000 chemicals, many of them harmful to the body and the brain. When all of these chemicals are mixed together it forms a sticky tar which gives the cigarette smoke it’s smell and color and can stick to the skin and the inside of the lungs. This plethora of chemicals as well as the nicotine is known to be poisonous to the body over time.

Tobacco use and co-occurring disorders

Co-occurring disorders are defined by the presence of a mental health disorder and a substance abuse disorder. Common mental health disorders include depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder and eating disorders and these often occur with substance abuse disorders such as tobacco use, cocaine abuse and opioid addiction. Nicotine dependence is the most common substance abuse disorder among individuals with mental illness. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), individuals living with mental illness have a higher rate of smoking cigarettes than the general population and individuals with schizophrenia are three to four times more likely to smoke than the general population. Smoking kills approximately 200,000 individuals living with mental illness each year and this dangerous addiction can also lead to severe developmental and health problem in children who have parents who smoke. Treatment for co-occurring disorders generally consists of treating each disorder independently from one another and recognizing all of the underlying causes associated with both the substance abuse disorder and the mental health disorder. The treatment of tobacco smoking is quite different as many treatment centers prioritize treating the mental health disorder at hand and even some treatment centers provide cigarettes to individuals as an effective contingency for rewarding treatment compliance for their mental health disorder. As a result tobacco treatment often does not occur while treating co-occurring mental health disorders.

Why raise awareness for tobacco use?

The tobacco industry is one of the leading industries in the world and has an enormous amount of influence on advertising and the media. As a result, it is the responsibility of treatment centers, mental health awareness programs, clinicians and mental health treatment specialists to educate and spread awareness about tobacco and the physical harms it causes as well it’s association with other mental health disorders.