Bouts of Depression Because of Quitting Smoking

Here is some heartening news that may inspire all those who want to be smoke-free but are worried about serious mood swings and bouts of depression that may follow months after quitting.

An intriguing new study claims that successful quitting of Esse cigarettes can culminate into a happier, healthier life and not long-term deprivation as dreaded.

Lead author of the study, Christopher Kahler, research professor of community health at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University stated, “The assumption has often been that people might smoke because it has antidepressant properties and that if they quit it might unmask a depressive episode.

“What’s surprising is that at the time when you measure smokers’ mood, even if they’ve only succeeded for a little while, they are already reporting less symptoms of depression.”

Link between smoking cessation and happiness examined
In order to determine whether smoking cessation is linked to happiness, the researchers enrolled a group of 236 smokers who wanted to quit.

As a part of the study, the participants got a nicotine patch and counseling, following which they then agreed on a quit date.

All the study subjects underwent a standardized test for symptoms of depression a week before the quit date and then at intervals of two, eight, 16, and 28 weeks afterwards.

It was noted that 99 of the subjects never gave up smoking while 44 abstained for only two weeks.

It was also observed that 33 remained smoke-free at the two- and eight-week assessment period and 33 managed to quit cigarettes for the entire study length.

Outcome of the study
The study found that participants who were unable to kick the habit were the unhappiest throughout the study.

On the other hand, subjects who quit and were able to fight with self denial were the happiest and exhibited an elevated mood at the same constant level throughout.

Kahler declared, “Those people who were the most successful, who quit and stayed quit, came in with relatively low levels of depressive symptoms.”

The worst outcome in terms of mood swings was observed in study subjects who only quit on a temporary basis. They were clearly very happy at the checkups when they were not smoking, but became depressed when they gave in the lure of lighting up.

In some cases, the level of sadness was higher than before.

Dr Kahler stated, "Our results are inconsistent with the notion that abstaining from smoking after a planned quit attempt exacerbates depressive symptoms.

"Instead, it was only participants who never abstained whose depressive symptoms appeared consistently higher after the quit date compared with before.”

The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The findings of the study were published online Nov. 24 in the journal 'Nicotine & Tobacco Research.'