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• Addressing smoking beliefs may help schizophrenia patients to quit 

Challenging positive expectations and providing information on the negative consequences of smoking increase the motivation of schizophrenia and schizoaffective patients to quit smoking, conclude US investigators.

It has been shown in a number of different populations that smoking expectations, in terms of both positive expectations of smoking and the negative health consequences, are associated with intention to quit and predict smoking cessation success. However, while smoking has been widely studied in schizophrenia, the links between smoking expectancies and understanding and intention to quit have not been investigated.

Jennifer Tidey, from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues studied 46 smokers with schizophrenia, 35 smokers with schizoaffective disorder, and 71 smokers without psychiatric illness, all of whom were heavy smokers. . . .

The team concludes in the journal Schizophrenia Research: "The results of this study support the importance of focusing on the expected pros and cons of smoking in motivation interviewing and other cognitive behavioral interventions for tobacco dependence in people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder."

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