Can smoking cessation increase mental well-being?

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Prof. Liv Grimstvedt Kvalvik
About the Author

Dr. Liv G.Kvalvik is a medical doctor specialized in reproductive epidemiology and a postdoc at the University of Bergen (Norway) and works with registry data to study smoking habits among pregnant women.


Cigarette smoking may give immediate pleasure, but is dangerous for your health.  Smoking may be seen as a way to deal with feelings like anxiety and stress and may be viewed as a way of coping with everyday life. Smoking a cigarette may also be used as a reward, and as part of celebration of big and small victories. But what happens to your mental well-being if you quit smoking?

Smoke cessation is one of the best things, if not the best, you can do for your health! Smoking is ranked as the second leading cause of death by a body called “the Global Burden of Disease 2017 Risk Factor Collaborators”.1 Quitting smoking lowers your risk of cardiovascular diseases and your risk of cancer. 2 But does this come at a price concerning your mental health – how is that impacted by quitting smoking?

A systematic review of 26 studies assessing mental health before and after smoking cessation found that quitting was associated with mental health benefits. 3 Assessment of mental health were made both in the general population and in clinical populations, including persons with physical or psychiatric conditions. In the included studies, the assessment of mental status at least 6 weeks after cessation was compared with the baseline assessment. Smoking cessation was associated with improvements in levels of anxiety, depression, stress and psychological quality of life. The authors point to clinicians to recommend smoking cessation interventions also among smokers with mental health problems.

There are several aides to be used by smoke quitters. These span from brief advice to nicotine replacement therapy. How do you get help for smoking cessation? Talk to your doctor about it! And don’t give up if you fail at a quit attempt! Each attempt will bring you closer to the status “former smoker”.

References

1. Collaborators GBDRF. Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 84 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks for 195 countries and territories, 1990-2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet 2018;392:1923-94. https://www.who.int/tobacco/quitting/benefits/en/.

2.   Taylor G, McNeill A, Girling A, Farley A, Lindson-Hawley N, Aveyard P. Change in mental health after smoking cessation: systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ 2014;348:g1151. https://www.bmj.com/content/348/bmj.g1151