ReviewWorld journal of psychiatry2015
Smoking in schizophrenic patients: A critique of the self-medication hypothesis.
Review in World journal of psychiatry, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Latest developments in the use of e-cigarettes by people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders who smoke: a scoping review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Clearing the smoke: experiences of patients and professionals during a one-year smoking cessation intervention in ambulatory mental healthcare - a qualitative study.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2025Trial
- A reduction in cigarette smoking improves health-related quality of life and does not worsen psychiatric symptoms in individuals with serious mental illness.Addictive behaviors · 2024Trial
- Moderating Role of Cigarette Smoking on the Efficacy of tDCS in the Treatment of Negative and Cognitive Symptoms of Schizophrenia: Results from a Randomized Clinical Trial.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Addressing Tobacco Use Disorder in Individuals With Mental Health Disorders: The Critical Role of Nurses.Journal of advanced nursing · 2025Article
- Association between electronic nicotine product use and subsequent first episode psychosis.Psychiatry research · 2024Article
- Proxy gene-by-environment Mendelian randomization study of the association between cigarette smoking during pregnancy and offspring mental health.International journal of epidemiology · 2023Article
- Underlying patterns of the co-occurrence of tobacco use and mental health among youth.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2023Article
- Metabolic profile in first episode drug naïve patients with psychosis and its relation to cognitive functions and social cognition: a case control study.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Evaluation Expression of the Caspase-3 and Caspase-9 Apoptotic Genes in Schizophrenia Patients.Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2023Article
- The Relationship Between Cannabis, Cognition, and Schizophrenia: It's Complicated.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2023Article
- Smoking and attention in schizophrenia spectrum disorders: What are we neglecting?Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- Smoking cessation among people with mental illness: A South African perspective.South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care · 2022Article
- An Exploration of Smoking Patterns Among People with Serious Mental Illness Attending an Outpatient Clinic in Qatar.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2022Article
- Smoking Affects the Patterns of Metabolic Disorders and Metabolic Syndrome in Patients With First-Episode Drug-Naive Schizophrenia: A Large Sample Study Based on the Chinese Han Population.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Article
- Morbidity and mortality in schizophrenia with comorbid substance use disorders.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2021Article
- Elevated Clozapine Concentrations in Clozapine-Treated Patients with Hypersalivation.Clinical pharmacokinetics · 2021Article
- Cigarette Smoking and Schizophrenia: Etiology, Clinical, Pharmacological, and Treatment Implications.Schizophrenia research and treatment · 2021Review
- A 5-Factor Framework for Assessing Tobacco Use Disorder.Tobacco use insights · 2021Article
- Internet gaming as a coping method among schizophrenic patients facing psychological distress.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
A common remark among laypeople, and notably also among mental health workers, is that individuals with mental illnesses use drugs as self-medication to allay clinical symptoms and the side effects of drug treatments. Roots of the self-medication concept in psychiatry date back at least to the 1980s. Observations that rates of smokers in schizophrenic patients are multiple times the rates for regular smoking in the general population, as well as those with other disorders, proved particularly tempting for a self-medication explanation. Additional evidence came from experiments with animal models exposed to nicotine and the identification of neurobiological mechanisms suggesting self-medication with smoking is a plausible idea. More recently, results from studies comparing smoking and non-smoking schizophrenic patients have led to the questioning of the self-medication hypothesis. Closer examination of the literature points to the possibility that smoking is less beneficial on schizophrenic symptomology than generally assumed while clearly increasing the risk of cancer and other smoking-related diseases responsible for early mortality. It is a good time to examine the evidence for the self-medication concept as it relates to smoking. Our approach is to focus on data addressing direct or implied predictions of the hypothesis in schizophrenic smokers.
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