Cigarette smoking in mental health has a long history with negative consequences. Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, was a heavy smoker—averaging 20 cigars a day (
Jones 1955). Despite recommendations from his physician, a diagnosis of oral cancer, undergoing 33 operations for cancer of the jaw and oral cavity, jaw replacement, pain, and suffering from “tobacco angina,” Freud continued to smoke up until his death, attributed to cancer, in 1939 at the age of 83. In a chapter on the behavior of therapists during treatment sessions, a 1951 handbook for psychotherapy encouraged tobacco use in sessions “as a small pleasure that you should feel free to enjoy” (
Colby 1951).
To this day, higher rates of cigarette smoking have been reported among psychiatry residents and practicing psychiatrists relative to other medical specialties (
Frank et al. 2001). In comparison with other health care providers, psychiatrists are less likely to treat cigarette smoking (
Frank et al. 2001,
Thorndike et al. 2001); this phenomenon may be related to their higher smoking rate.
Prioritization of mental health treatment, lack of an appreciation of the health effects of cigarette smoking, and beliefs among clinicians that persons with mental illness are not able or willing to quit have contributed to a culture in many treatment settings that accepts and “normalizes” cigarette smoking. Psychiatry settings have a long history of providing cigarettes to patients, an effective contingency for rewarding treatment compliance (
Holtzman 1975,
Robertson 2000,
Torrey 1980). Mental health patient advocacy groups and the tobacco industry also successfully fought efforts by hospitals, states, and the Joint Committee for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations to ban cigarette smoking in inpatient psychiatric facilities (
Prochaska et al. 2008b). As of 2006, 59% of state psychiatric hospitals in the United States permitted patient smoking on their premises (
Monihan et al. 2006).
The tobacco industry has marketed its product to persons with mental illness, provided tax-free cigarettes to psychiatric facilities, and funded research promoting a self-medication hypothesis for nicotine (
Prochaska et al. 2008b). Viewing tobacco as an increasingly “downscale social activity,” the tobacco industry marketed its “value” brands to “street people,” a substantial number of whom have mental illness. The tobacco industry also used service providers in homeless shelters, psychiatric facilities, and drug treatment programs to further its political goals (
Apollonio & Malone 2005).
Tobacco’s place in alcohol and drug treatment is similarly long-standing and detrimental. Both of the cofounders of Alcoholics Anonymous (Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith) smoked heavily and died from causes related to their cigarette use (
Hartman 2001). Today, treatment of tobacco dependence is not included in most addictions treatment settings. In a survey of 223 addictions treatment programs in Canada, only 10% reported offering formal smoking-cessation programs, 54% reported placing very little emphasis on smoking, and 47% still allowed smoking indoors (
Currie et al. 2003). Tobacco use is prevalent among addiction counselors, who themselves are often in recovery from alcohol and drugs. Having experienced the “normalization of tobacco” within the addiction treatment and 12-step communities, counselors may continue to perpetuate its use by smoking with clients and discouraging quit attempts out of fears that sobriety may be compromised. In focus groups conducted with 78 patients recruited from methadone clinics, about a third reported being advised by friends, treatment staff, and Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous (AA/NA) sponsors to delay quitting (
Richter et al. 2002). Unlike alcohol and non-nicotinic drugs, cigarette smoking has few immediate consequences and cessation has not been a priority. Yet among individuals treated for alcohol dependence, tobacco-related diseases were responsible for half of all deaths, a proportion that is greater than alcohol-related causes (
Hurt & Offord 1996). In a 24-year study of long-term drug abusers,
Hser et al. (1994,
2004) documented the death rate among cigarette smokers to be four times that of nonsmokers. The health consequences of tobacco and other drug use are synergistic and estimated to be 50% greater than the sum of each individually (
Bien & Burge 1990).