Myth: Cigarettes Relieve Stress Fact: Quitting Smoking Does

Once widely advertised as glamorous, cigarettes, we now know, can kill you. And new research is debunking another myth about cigarettes, namely that they relieve stress.

According to MedicalXpress.com, a new study out of the University of Oxford shows that the opposite is true: quitting smoking can improve your mental health.

The research, published in JAMA Open Network, showed that “smoking abstinence between weeks nine and 24 was associated with significant improvements in anxiety and depression scores.”

The cohort study used data from a large, randomized clinical trial, collected from 4,260 participants in sixteen countries between 2011 and 2015. Researchers from Oxford University’s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences were keen to determine the effects of smoking cessation on mental health. Of the study’s participants, 55.4% had a history of mental illness.

Of the 4,260 people in the study sample, 479 stopped smoking. According to researcher Min Gao, co-author of the study, the results showed that “quitting smoking will not worsen and may improve mental health outcomes.”

Worldwide, smoking is the leading cause of preventable illness and death. Nearly half of all smokers die of a smoking-related disease. Despite a desire to quit, many smokers keep smoking because “they perceive smoking as a means of alleviating stress and providing other psychological benefits,” the article states. Smoking is widely viewed as having a calming effect, leading some health professionals to discourage individuals with mental health conditions from attempting to quit, lest it worsen their mental well-being.

This study refuted that widely-held belief. As Paul Aveyard, co-author, Professor of Behavioral Medicine at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences noted, “Many people who smoke cannot contemplate stopping smoking. They know it affects their health, but they feel they need cigarettes to cope with stress. This is what people experience every day when they smoke —they feel better afterwards. However what people perceive are the benefits of smoking are the symptoms of withdrawal from cigarettes.”

“While smoking gives a short-term benefit, smoking itself is the cause of the problems. Without smoking, mental health improves on average. Our study joins with others that show that when people stop smoking their mental health improves, whereas those who do not stop smoking have no improvement.”

“Stopping smoking is not easy,” added Angela Wu, lead author and Researcher the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. “What we do know though is that you are more likely to successfully stop smoking when you are supported, whether that is pharmacologically or behaviorally. There are many alternatives and options to help you quit, such as counseling, nicotine replacement therapy (for example patches, gum and sprays), and even trying out electronic cigarettes [which] do not burn tobacco, which is the most harmful element of smoking cigarettes, but will still give you nicotine.”

Vaping creates problems of its own, according to Johns Hopkins University, who caution that while it is better than smoking traditional cigarettes, it is not safe.

Read the full article here.

Read the University of Oxford study for yourself.

Photo by Julia Engel on Unsplash