A retrospective analysis of the comparative effectiveness of smoking cessation medication among individuals with mental illness in community-based mental health and addictions treatment settings

What is known on the subject?: Persons with different mental illnesses smoke for reasons based on their particular diagnosis. As compared to those without, persons with mental illnesses are less able to quit smoking when using smoking cessation medications. What this paper adds to existing knowledge?: This paper shows that there may be differences in the ability to quit smoking between persons with different mental illness diagnoses. What are the implications for practice?: Clinicians should be aware that persons with anxiety disorders may find it more difficult to quit smoking as compared to those with other mental illnesses. Clinicians should be aware that of all medications, varenicline seems to help those with mood disorders to quit the best. Clinicians should be aware that persons with psychotic disorders likely need longer treatment durations for smoking cessation as compared to persons with other mental illnesses. Abstract: Introduction Individuals with mental illnesses (MI) have diagnosis-specific reasons for smoking and achieve low smoking cessation when using cessation medications. Aim To assess differences in smoking cessation outcomes by MI diagnosis and cessation medications in outpatient mental health and addictions treatment settings in Vancouver, Canada. Method This is a retrospective analysis of tobacco treatment outcomes from 539 participants. The programme consists of cessation pharmacotherapy with 8 to 12 weeks of behavioural counselling and 12 weeks of support group. Smoking cessation was verified by expired carbon monoxide levels. Generalized estimating equations models assessed differences in cessation by type of medication in both total and stratified samples. Results There were no significant differences in cessation by pharmacotherapy in the total sample. Individuals with a mood disorder were two times more likely to achieve cessation as compared to those with an anxiety disorder. Among individuals with mood disorders, receiving varenicline alone resulted in three times the likelihood of cessation as compared to receiving single NRT. Discussion The differences in outcomes by MI diagnosis suggest the need for more diagnosis-specific approaches to optimize cessation. Implications for Practice Compared with other diagnoses, persons with anxiety disorders may have a greater challenge quitting and those with a psychotic disorder may require longer treatment durations.