Smoking linked with risk of suicide: Study

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Agencies

Posted online: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 at 12:00:00
Updated: Wednesday, January 09, 2008 at 07:46:13

Paris, January 9: "Smoking Kills" and "Smoking Causes Cancer" are the kind of health warnings that are familiar to millions of smokers.

How about this one - "Smoking Boosts the Risk of Suicide"?

The idea is sketched by German researchers, who say an in-depth study among young people in Bavaria found a clear and alarming link between smoking and the desire to kill oneself.

The investigation, published in the 'Journal of Affective Disorders', is based on data from a detailed psychology study launched in 1995 among 3,021 people aged 14-24 who lived in Munich.

They were interviewed again four years later, when 2,548 of the volunteers responded.

Around a quarter of these individuals had never smoked.

Of the rest, 40 per cent were defined as occasional smokers, 17 per cent as "non-dependent" regular smokers and 19 per cent as addicted smokers.

Among non-smokers, nearly 15 per cent, reported having had suicidal thoughts, defined as making plans to kill himself or herself or spending two weeks or longer with the wish to die.

The rate was around 20 per cent among occasional and non-dependent smokers, but among dependent smokers, suicidal ideation was 30 per cent.

An even more pronounced pattern was found among the 69 individuals who had actually tried to commit suicide.

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