[ti:Study Smoking May Increase Risk of Schizophrenia] [ar:Christopher Jones-Cruise] [al:Health Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]Studies have linked cigarette smoking to a number of health problems, [00:05.72]including lung cancer and heart disease. [00:09.39]Now, a new study shows a possible link between smoking [00:15.65]and the disabling brain disorder schizophrenia. [00:20.71]People with schizophrenia hear and see things that are not real. [00:26.49]Patients also may believe that others want to harm them. [00:31.65]Cigarette smoking is very common among people with mental disorders, [00:38.17]especially those with schizophrenia. [00:41.40]Sameer Jauhar noted the connection. [00:45.64]"As a psychiatrist it's always something you think about, [00:48.37]because you always see patients with psychotic illnesses smoking. [00:51.83]People generally put it down to self-medication." [00:54.89]Sameer Jauhar is a psychiatric researcher at King's College London. [01:01.24]He spoke recently during a podcast [01:05.80]to the online journal, The Lancet Psychiatry. [01:10.51]The journal published his study, [01:12.97]which noted the relationship between cigarette smoking and schizophrenia. [01:18.97]Dr. Jauhar and a King's College team [01:23.80]found that smoking may in some way increase the risk of developing schizophrenia. [01:31.62]They examined 61 studies from researchers around the world. [01:37.39]They found that smoking is three times more common [01:43.27]among schizophrenic patients coming to treatment [01:47.17]for the first time compared to the general population. [01:52.16]James MacCabe was one of the writers of a report on the study. [01:58.35]He is a doctor of psychiatric research at King's College. [02:03.32]He says he was not surprised to find that [02:08.43]more than half of people with schizophrenia smoke. [02:12.54]He says the finding raises questions about the belief [02:17.69]that people who have mental disorders smoke to ease their symptoms. [02:24.24]"If the explanation was self-medication, you would expect [02:28.50]that when people started to develop schizophrenia [02:32.07]they would be no more likely to smoke than anybody else, [02:35.09]and the smoking would then develop in response to the symptoms." [02:39.51]The study found that those who developed schizophrenia [02:43.97]began smoking at a younger age than other smokers, [02:49.02]before their mental problems appeared. [02:52.65]There is also a suggestion about the drug nicotine, [02:57.69]but not the findings to support it. [03:01.58]Nicotine is found in tobacco products. [03:06.08]The researchers suspect nicotine may help fuel production of the brain chemical dopamine. [03:14.02]This chemical affects the parts of the brain [03:18.38]that control how a person reacts to praise and pleasure. [03:23.28]Increased levels of dopamine have been seen in people with mental illness. [03:30.90]Medicines used to treat schizophrenia work to reduce dopamine activity in a patient's brain. [03:40.76]James MacCabe says there is not enough evidence yet [03:46.64]to confirm the link between cigarette smoking and the development of schizophrenia. [03:53.49]But when the link is confirmed, he says, people who have a family history [03:59.95]of the illness might be advised not to smoke. [04:03.93]"There are many reasons why we should try to reduce rates of smoking [04:10.85]in the population for physical health reasons. [04:14.15]But this suggests that possibly doing so would also actually benefit people's mental health." [04:20.73]The researchers are calling for more studies on the possible link [04:26.00]between smoking and nicotine dependency in the development of psychotic disorders. [04:32.63]I'm Christopher Jones-Cruise. [04:35.06]¸ü¶àÌýÁ¦Çë·ÃÎÊ51voa.com