Behavioral Health and Tobacco Use

Of the 480,000 deaths that occur each year in the U.S. from tobacco use,¹ almost half (~200,000) are among people with behavioral health conditions.² Over 40% of individuals with behavioral health conditions use tobacco and represent over 44% of the U.S. tobacco market.³

The 2006 Morbidity and Mortality in People with Serious Mental Illness report issued by the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, found that persons with serious mental illness die, on average, 25 years earlier and suffer increased medical co-morbidity, often from tobacco-related disease. In fact, they are more likely to die from tobacco-related diseases than from alcohol use.

^{1 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking—50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014.}

^{2 Mauer, B. (2006). Morbitiy and mortality in people with serious mental illnesses. In Technical Report 13, ed. J.Parks, D. Svendsen, P. Singer, M.E .Foti. Alexandria, VA: Nat. Assoc. State Mental Helath Prog. Dir. Coun. 87 pp.}

^{3.Lasser, B.K., Woolhnader, S., Himmelstein, D.U., McCormick, D., & Bor, D.H. (2000). Smoking and mental illness: a populaiton-based prevalence study. JAMA. 284: 2606-10.}