Times of India
16 April 2010
Washington, USA

Adults who suffer from depression are twice as likely to smoke and also smoke more heavily than adults who are not depressed, a new study shows.

Forty–three per cent of all adults aged 20 and older who suffer from depression smoked cigarettes, compared with 22% of adults who were not depressed, data compiled by the US National Center for Health Statistics, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. The phenomenon was the most marked among men between the ages of 40 and 54 and women between the ages of 20 and 39.

More than half of men with depression, aged 40–54, were smokers compared to less than a quarter of men in the same age group who were not depressed, while half of women aged 20–39 who suffered depression smoked compared with 21% of women who were not depressed. Nearly three in 10 adults with depression smoked more than a cigarette pack a day, which was almost twice the rate for adult smokers who were not depressed.

Even adults with mild depressive symptoms were more likely to smoke than adults with no symptoms at all of the chronic illness. Smokers with depression also had more difficulty kicking the habit.

Use of smokeless tobacco is rising among teens
Health experts raised concern about the growing use of smokeless tobacco by teenagers, and suggested its use by Major League Baseball players is influencing young people. The use of smokeless tobacco, chewing tobacco and snuff, by teens has risen in recent years, reversing a trend toward declining use of all tobacco products by teens, Terry Pechacek of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a US congressional panel.