The Impact of Smoking on Schizophrenia Relapses
Abstract
Purpose: The authors studied the impact of smoking on relapses in schizophrenics.
Method: A lot of 134 schizophrenics diagnosed according to the ICD 10 was used. We looked into the number of cigarettes, association with other legal drugs, sex, psychiatric family history, comorbidities and the rate of relapse in time. Results: As with psychoactive substances, the effect of smoking depends on dosage. Starting smoking after the onset of the disease, at a dosage of under 20 cigarettes a day is a positive prognostic factor for women. Starting smoking before the onset of the disease, regardless dosage, is a negative prognostic factor.
Conclusions: Smoking has a differentiated psychoactive effect on schizophrenics, depending on the age of onset of smoking and of the illness, by sex, in relation to dosage, similar to psychotropic substances.