Many smokers say they fear feeling depressed without cigarettes, that quitting makes people feel bad and so they don't want to quit cigarette smoking. Or if they are quitting smoking they start with the mindset that they are doing it for the health of their body, not their mind.
A study conducted at Brown University in Rhode Island has found that quite the opposite is true and that quitting smoking cigarettes makes you feel psychologically better, not worse. One of the authors of the study, released in November of 2010 in the medical journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research, is Dr. Christopher W. Kahler.
"The assumption has often been that people might smoke because it has antidepressant properties and that if they quit it might unmask a depressive episode," Dr. Kahler said. "What's surprising is that at the time when you measure smokers' mood, even if they've only succeeded for a little while, they are already reporting less symptoms of depression."
Kicking the Habit a Mood Elevator
The Brown study looked at 236 smokers who were also heavy drinkers (the authors say results would be the same if the smokers did not drink). They were tested for depressive symptoms one week prior to the start of the study and then tested for mood and tobacco abstinence at 2, 8, 16 and 26 weeks after the quit date.
The smokers in the study, called Time-Varying Smoking Abstinence Predicts Lower Depressive Symptoms Following Smoking Cessation Treatment, were given counseling on quitting before the start date. Most subjects were not able to quit for the duration of the study, though most quit for a portion of it. Of the 236 candidates:
- 29 failed to abstain from smoking cigarettes for even a day.
- 99 of the subjects failed to quit up to first testing at 2 weeks.
- 44 were smoke free after two weeks but not at eight weeks.
- 33 were smoke free to eight week check point but not at 16.
- 33 quit smoking for the full six months duration of the study.
Subjects Who Quit Quitting Smoking Went Back to Old Habits
The research found those who remained smoke-free were those who in essence tested the happiest. All subjects were tested throughout and those who went back to smoking cigarettes had a drop back to pre-quitting levels of depression. Sometimes, the study said, those who began to smoke again after having quit were even more depressed than they had tested before the quit date.
Kahler said there was a direct correlation between abstaining from cigarettes and having an enhanced mood and between smoking and having a more depressed mood and he compared it to the effects of medication.
'If people quit smoking their depressive symptoms go down and if they relapse, their mood goes back to where they were," Dr. Kahler said. 'An effective antidepressant should look like that."
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