Smokers who successfully quit smoking using stop smoking services see an improvement in their mental health such as a decrease in symptoms of depression. Funded by the Cancer Research UK, the study was published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine. The study found that successful quitters had a significant improvement in feelings of depression.
Researchers at King's College London, joined with researchers from Charles University in Prague, studied people who attended a stop smoking clinic in the Czech Republic. The results of the study showed that two-thirds or 66.3 percent of those who had moderate or severe depression during the time they were smoking reported no or minimal symptoms during a one-year follow up.The researchers also discovered that those who received specialist behavioral support and medication from the clinic were more likely be consistent in quitting the habit for a year if they went back for repeat visits, the Medical Xpress says.
They also noted that people with mental health issues were still less likely to quit successfully than those without. This highlights that people with mental health problems need extra help.Smoking rates among people with depression more than double those of the general population with around three million having a mental health condition out of an estimated 9.6 million adult smokers in the UK.
Smoking is the biggest factor contributing to early death linked with a mental health condition, the Cancer Research UK says. According to Dr Leonie Brose, a Cancer Research UK fellow, smoking cessation services "can be very effective at supporting people with depression, and that increased visits greatly improve the success of quit attempts". The new study highlights the great value of stop smoking services and that smokers who use stop smoking services are around three times more likely to quit successfully than those using no support at all.
