Risk of Psychiatric Morbidity in Patients with Tobacco Habits: A Cross-Sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Tobacco cessation is a challenging arena for healthcare professionals. Many patients seem to be unable to quit tobacco despite of knowing its ill-effects and several efforts. It has been speculated that patients' psychosocial status may be associated with his/her dependence on tobacco and there could be some amount of psychiatric morbidity associated with chronic and compulsive use of tobacco. However, very few studies have been conducted to explore this aspect of tobacco dependence.

AIM: To assess psychiatric morbidity in tobacco users as compared to non-users of tobacco.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study included 200 patients reporting to a Dental College who consented to participate in the study. The study consisted of two groups; first consisting 100 tobacco users and another age and gender matched group of 100 non-users of tobacco. Dependence to tobacco products amongst the study group was assessed using International classification of Diseases-10 (ICD-10) criteria. General Health Questionnaire - 28 (GHQ-28) was used to assess the psychological morbidity amongst both the groups. Statistical analysis was done using SPSS 21.0 version. Chi square test and Pearson's correlation coefficient were used to assess the difference in proportion and correlation between variables respectively.

RESULTS: A 79% of tobacco users showed dependence on tobacco according to ICD-10 criteria. GHQ-28 scores analysis revealed that 61% of tobacco users with a score of 24 or above in contrast to only 17% of non-tobacco users. Tobacco users were observed to be 7.63 folds at a higher risk of developing psychiatric morbidity than non-users of tobacco (p-value< 0.001).

CONCLUSION: There appears to be a significant risk of psychiatric morbidity prevalent amongst tobacco users. Hence, psychosocial counselling must be considered as a part of tobacco cessation strategy.