Stage-Tailored Tobacco Cessation Treatment in Inpatient Psychiatry

Abstract

Individuals with mental illness and co-occurring addictive disorders account for 44% of the cigarettes sold in the United States. Smokers with mental illness face serious tobacco-related consequences, including increased morbidity and mortality, isolation, stigma, and financial hardship. Tobacco use also increases the metabolism of some antipsychotic and antidepressant medications, with the potential for subtherapeutic treatment and higher rates of rehospitalization. Nearly half of U.S. state psychiatric hospitals now ban tobacco use on their premises. We briefly describe an innovative tobacco treatment intervention initiated during psychiatric hospitalization. The intervention combines a computer-delivered expert system intervention and manual based on the transtheoretical model, an individual counseling session, and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). Psychiatric hospitals are making important strides in banning tobacco use. The findings present an innovative, acceptable, multicomponent intervention for initiating tobacco treatment in inpatient psychiatry. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)