SCEPTRE Research Programme

ALT Woman breaking a cigarette in half

ALT Background and study aims The proportion of people with mental illness who smoke tobacco is very high compared to the general population. It can reach figures over 70% among those with schizophrenia and in hospitalised patients with severe mental illness, compared to only 15% in the general population. As people with mental illness are usually heavily addicted to tobacco, smoking causes large amounts of disease and deaths in this group, often from heart and lung disease and cancer. Smoking has been recognised as the single largest cause of health inequalities for people with mental illness. People with mental illness lose up to 20 years of life mainly to the consequences of smoking. Although mental health patients often want to quit and can do so successfully, smoking is rarely addressed in mental health care. In many mental health settings in England, a historic ‘smoking culture’ can still be found.