A recent research has shown that mentally ill people smoke more as compared to general population. This study showed that instances of smoking have been halved in general population of Australia in last 20 years but there has been no major change in smoking rates in people with psychiatric disabilities. This study was led Kristen Saxone-Moeller from the University of Melbourne's Melbourne School of Population Health.

In this study, researchers analyzed the data collected from 280 clients of a psychiatric support service. Most of the study subjects had schizophrenia.

Analysis of data showed that 62 percent study subjects smoked as compared to 16 per cent members of the general population. Researchers found that smoking rates were still high despite willingness by 75% of respondents to quit or cut down. 

Mentally ill people consume 50 per cent more cigarettes a day as compared to the general population. On average a mentally ill person consumes 22 cigarettes a day. The heaviest smokers in the study subjects smoked 80 cigarettes in a day. 

Approximately three in five (59 per cent) during the study said they wanted to quit smoking. Nearly three quarters (74 per cent) said they wanted to cut down. But only one in 10 (12 per cent) had been successful in giving up smoking. Consumption of tobacco was thrice in smokers with mental illness as compared to general population.

Kristen Saxone-Moeller said that previous research by SANE Australia and ACCESS economics showed smoking among people with mental illness cost Australia more than $30 billion a year. 

She added: "Smoking compounds many of the health problems already experienced by people with mental illnesses. Combined with drug therapies that often make them overweight, they are at even greater risk of diabetes, heart attacks and strokes if they smoke."

She said that the biggest cause of death among people with mental illness is not suicide, it is cardiovascular diseases. Smoking also placed a big financial burden on many people with mental illness, some of whom spent more than 20 per cent of their income on cigarettes. 

However, governments had provided very little support for quit programs among the mentally ill. She explained that we really need to focus on people with mental illness as a specialist sub-group which needs tailored support rather than just including them with other socially disadvantaged groups. She added that helping people with mental illness to cut down, rather than quit straight away, may also be a good strategy for reducing smoking rates. 

This study emphasized the need for specialist services to help people with mental illness, stop smoking.