Nicotine addiction in the psychiatric hospital: final report

The following facts are now accepted by everyone with any sense of objectivity. One, that there is an entity known as nicotine addiction and that smoking is such an addiction. Two, that this addiction is related to more preventable deaths than any other disease in the United States. Three, that smoking now causes more deaths from lung cancer among women than does breast cancer. Four, that smoking interferes with the metabolism of the very drugs we use in psychiatry to alleviate symptoms. Five, that smoking is more common among psychiatric patients than in the general population, and more so among the hospitalized mentally ill. This paper, the third in a series, covers the problems encountered in bringing smoking to a complete halt within a psychiatric hospital. It deals with the emotional reactions professional staff had in confronting the problems anticipated and following the results of the effort. It further describes the results which ensued with patients over a one and a half-year period.