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More than 40% of US adults who have depression are also smokers,
meaning people need help with both if they want to quit, according
to a US government survey.
The survey found more than half of middle-aged men with depression
were also smokers, while half of women under age 40 who were
depressed also smoked.
Patients with depression who want to kick the habit can be helped,
but it is difficult, said Laura Pratt and Debra Brody of the
National Center for Health Statistics, who conducted the
study.
"The few studies that have examined ability to quit smoking in
persons with depression have shown that with intensive treatment,
persons with depression can quit smoking and remain abstinent,"
they wrote.
"These intensive cessation services often use treatments that are
also used for depression, including cognitive-behavioural therapy
or antidepressant medications."
Pratt and Brody used a national survey of 5,000 people to break out
the percentage of smokers among people with depression.
They found 43% of adults over 20 with depression smoked, versus 22%
without.
"Over one-half of men with depression aged 40-54 were current
smokers compared with 26 percent of men without depression of the
same age," they wrote.
"Among women aged 40-54, of those with depression, 43% were smokers
compared with 22% of those without depression," they added.
Fifty percent of depressed women aged 20 to 39 smoked.
Antidepressants used to help smokers quit include GlaxoSmithKline's
Zyban, known generically as bupropion. Pfizer's Chantix or
varenicline blocks nicotine from getting into brain cells.
Pfizer is fighting off lawsuits that allege the company did not
warn quickly enough about the risks of attempted suicide with its
drug, which now carries a strong black box warning, as do many
antidepressants.
Pratt and Brody also found that patients with depression are more
likely to be heavy smokers and the worse the depression; the more
likely they are to smoke.
About seven percent of US adults had depression in the years 2005
through 2008, the researchers said.
Globally, tobacco kills about five million people a year, according
to the World Health Organization and the US Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.
"On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than non-smokers,"
the CDC says.
"Cigarette smoking is responsible for about one in five deaths annually, or about 443,000 deaths per year.
