[Prevalence of cigarette smoking in psychiatric patients]

In opinion of the WHO, AIDS and smoking are the two major epidemies, and smoking is the most important avoidable risk for health. According to epidemiological studies, smoking is a relevant risk factors connected to different types of cancers, as well as respiratory, cardiovascular, and mother-infant pathologies. In Chile 7% of the death toll can be blamed on smoking. The present information about cigarette consumption was obtained from the clinical record of 297 in-patients, discharged from the Psychiatric Clinic, University of Chile, between the year 1983 and the year 1985. Prevalence of smoking is 66.7%, with no difference per sex. 9.6% patients smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day. The prevailing clinical diagnoses are: Drug addiction (alcoholism excluded), 96.6%; schizophrenia, 81.7%; and alcoholism, 73.2%. Smoking is associated to a background of alcohol abuse, 78.9%, as well as other drug abuses, 89.7%: In other words, this is a statistically significant difference. In this study, it was found out that psychiatric in-patients were smoking more heavily than the general population--41%, and more heavily than somatic in-patients as well--42%.