Tobacco treated as an addiction

By Doug Rapp, Staff Writer

March 16, 2009 11:05 pm

— PETERSBURG — Although the number of people who smoke has decreased through the years, the smoking rate for people with mental or addictive illness remains as high as 75 percent.
That was the focus of a presentation Monday by Tom Lux Jr., project director for the ReThink Tobacco Project, which is part of Mental Health America of Indiana. Held at the IP&L Communications Building in Pike County, Lux’s talk was presented by Daviess and Pike County Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Coalitions and the Office of Women’s Health.
After beginning by stating the higher smoking rate among those with mental illness, Lux said he was there to increase awareness among mental illness health providers and to engage them to move toward more aggressive and successful interventions.
Lux, who has worked as an addiction counselor, gave general statistics about the toll of tobacco: 440,000 dead a year in the U.S., including 9,000 yearly in Indiana.
Lux said a doctor in Indianapolis once told him: “You might as well suck on the tailpipe of a bus” to get the same harmful effects of smoking.
As life-shortening as smoking is, Lux said, people with mental illness die 25 years earlier on average than the general population. The main cause is smoking, he said, then obesity, substance abuse and inadequate access to medical care.
Lux said providers treating patients with mental illness usually don’t focus on encouraging them to quit smoking. He said providers do this for a variety of reasons, including the attitude that smoking is the lesser of two evils, the idea of cigarettes as a reward or distraction and the belief that smoking cessation will interfere with other treatment. A 2002 study of mental illness records found that only two percent mentioned the patients’ nicotine dependence, Lux said.
“If someone comes into a treatment center addicted to methamphetamine or cocaine, you’re going to treat that first,” Lux said. “We need to help people get over their immediate crises, but we should help them get over tobacco, too.”
After the event, Lux said he hoped those in attendance were better equipped to deal with tobacco addiction.
“I hope they walk away with the realization that it is in fact important to address tobacco cessation in their settings and with the confidence they can begin today to ask people if they have thought about smoking and to refer them to free resources that are already out there.”
Dr. Bryan Porter, with the North Daviess Medical Clinic, said he was there to learn more about smoking cessation for patients. He said he has seen patients with multiple addictions including smoking.
“Smoking is addictive enough in itself,” Porter said. “Just because someone smokes doesn’t mean they’re a bad person or they’re going to go on to other things but it’s usually the first step that sets them up to do other things.”