Smoking, Depression and Life Expectancy

Smokers are 41 percent more likely to suffer from depression than nonsmokers, according to a new study. Research conducted by scientists at the University of Navarra in collaboration with the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and the Harvard School of Public Health found a direct correlation between tobacco use and the development of depression.

The director of the project and chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, Prof. Miguel Angel Martinez-Gonzalez, explained that over a six-year period 190 smokers around the age of 42 who didn’t present symptoms of depression at the beginning of the study were diagnosed with the illness, while 65 admitted to taking antidepressants.

Among the mechanisms at work, he said, is a “genetic and/or environmental disposition, which will increase the probability that the tobacco habit is retained and that the user will suffer depression as an independent issue.”

In addition, the findings indicated that those who’d given up tobacco more than a decade previously had less risk of developing depression than nonsmokers.

Life Expectancy Decline

Analysis of mortality patterns across the United States indicates a stagnant or falling life expectancy for many parts of the American population. A study conducted by researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health; Harvard University; the University of California, San Francisco; and the University of Washington in Seattle found that wide disparities in life expectancy continue to exist in the U.S., affecting 4 percent of the male and 19 percent of the female population.

The report attributed the statistics mainly to a leveling-off, among both men and women, in the reduction of deaths due to cardiovascular disease and a rise in deaths from other diseases, such as lung cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease.

Lead author Majid Ezzati, associate professor of international health at the Harvard School of Public Health, said, “There is now evidence that there are large parts of the population in the United States whose health has been getting worse for about two decades.”

—Dr. Bob Goldman

www.WorldHealth.net

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