Smoking and mental health: results from a community survey

Objective: To assess the relationship of smoking with depression and anxiet y symptoms and with risk factors for depression. Design and setting: A community survey conducted in Canberra in 1997. Participants: 2725 persons aged 18-79 sampled from the electoral roll. Main outcome measures: Smoking was investigated in relation to psychiatric symptoms (anxiety, depression, alcohol misuse), sociodemographic characteri stics (age, sex, education, occupational status), social stressors (divorce , unemployment, financial difficulties, negative life events, childhood adv ersity), personality (extraversion, neuroticism, psychoticism), and social support (family and friends). Results: Smokers had more depression and anxiety symptoms, more stressors a nd lower socioeconomic status compared with non-smokers. The association be tween smoking and psychiatric symptoms persisted even when stressors, socio economic characteristics and other factors were statistically controlled. Conclusions: Smoking is associated with poorer mental health. In helping pa tients to give up smoking, doctors need to be aware that some may have unde rlying mental health problems that require attention.