A Cross Sectional study Showing Association Between Smoking and Reduction in Symptomatology in Schizophrenic Patients

Background Smoking is common in schizophrenic patients.Smokers with schizophrenia show more intense positive symptoms and reduced cognitive function,low extra pyramidal side effects and more aggression than non smoking schizophrenic patients.Although smoking related lung complications like malignancy,chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and tuberculosis are common,drugs for smoking cessation are effective and doesn’t worsen the risk of neuropsychiatric problems. Materials and methods A tertiary care hospital based cross sectional study was conducted in Govt Theni Medical college between Aug’ 21to Dec’ 22 among 100 inpatients diagnosed as having schizophrenia using MINI(multistructured international neuropsyhiatric interview)scale screening and stringent ICD-10 criteria was applied. Reduction in symptomatology was assessed with rating scales such as positive and negative symptoms scale(PANNS) and brief psychiatric rating scale(BPRS)Limitation of the study :Due to cultural set up and rarity of smoking females were not included in our study. Results In our study 75% were smokers with schizophrenia(75 cases).Upon comparing symptom reduction in smoking schizophrenic patients with rating scales such as PANSS and BPRS,significant reduction in symptoms are found and the same significant correlation is found on comparison between rating scales such as PANSS and BPRS. Conclusion Smoking nicotine had a definitive value in reduction of positive symptoms and improvement in negative symptoms in schizophrenic patients. They smoke due to self medicate themselves,but at the cost of chronic and severe lung diseases.