Certain policies on cigarettes might reduce the risk of suicide associated with smoking, a new research shows.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, said that states with low cigarette taxes and relaxed policies for smoking in public have higher number of suicide rates. These states in fact witnessed a 6 percent increase in suicide rates. From 1990 to 2004, the average annual suicide rate was about 14 deaths for every 100,000 people.
"Higher taxes and more restrictive smoking policies are well-known ways of getting people to smoke less. So it set a natural experiment, which shows that the states with more aggressive policies also had lower rates of smoking. The next thing we wanted to learn was whether those states experienced any changes in suicide rates, relative to the states that didn't implement these policies as aggressively," lead study author Richard A Grucza, PhD, explained in a press release.
Researchers analyzed the data compiled on individual states and looked into taxing cigarettes and rules about public smoking. They noted that from 1990 to 2004, states that adopted aggressive tobacco-control policies had reduced suicide rates compared to the national average. The decline of suicide rates in these states was up by15 percent.
"Our analysis showed that each dollar increase in cigarette taxes was associated with a 10 percent decrease in suicide risk," Grucza said. "Indoor smoking bans also were associated with risk reductions."
Common supposition associated with smoking is that people with psychiatric disorders are more likely to turn to cigarette abuse. However, researchers said that smoking might also increase the risk or severity of mental disorders that might lead to suicide risk.
"We really need to look more closely at the effects of smoking and nicotine, not only on physical health but on mental health, too," Grucza said.
He said that reasons for suicide risk after smoking are not known. Grucza said that it could be that smoking affects depression or increases addiction to other substances. Nicotine might also be a possible connection between smoking and suicide risk.
"Like any other addicting drug, people start using nicotine to feel good, but eventually they need it to feel normal. And as with other drugs, that chronic use can contribute to depression or anxiety, and that could help to explain the link to suicide," he concluded.
The findings are published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research.
