Why Mentally Ill People Should Have Access to E-Cigarettes

[vigowomble]

A long but interesting article link

[jonoclouds]

Thank you vigowomble for your link to this excellent article.

It is well-established that people with mental illness use nicotine to self-medicate.
Smoking and vaping help relieve the distressing sensations of depression, anxiety and other similar mental states.
I know this from personal experience, and I am well-informed through my association with mental health charities and a well-respected mental health research organisation (which I cannot name here).

Vaping is a marvellous alternative to smoking which still provides its benefits but without its dangers. Now that e-cig technology is maturing, there is no need for mental health sufferers to trade off the risks between an early smoking-induced death and the alternative probability of an early death "by their own hands." Yes, it really is that serious.

All the best - Jono

[Karma]

There are also a large proportion of MH workers still smoking!

[Deleted]

Yeah but they don't count Karma Tease-smiley

Thanks - have spammed my normal folk......May explain my admissions when nic got too low last year .....admissison to psych unit or e-cig - tis a no brainer LOL

[tomj777]

It's odd that this article didn't mention the effect of nicotine levels on some Anti-Psychotics

Clozapine comes to mind as a particularly impacted drug (but there will be others) - levels have to be monitored and a lot of fine tuning regarding dosage is necessary. The act of altering nicotine intake has a marked effect on the levels of serum in the blood - smoking cessation often results in significant psychotic episodes as the serum levels rapidly increase.

See this example article for more information: www.merseycare.nhs.uk/Library/What_we_do/Clinical_Services/Public_Health/Smoking_Interactions.pdf

[lynwlt]

Mar 31, 2014 10:32:05 GMT @johanino said:

Yeah but they don't count Karma

But where would you be without them?

Working in Mental Health can be as stressful as suffering from the same condition..

[buggritt]

My son is a mental health worker. He also vapes. He's no longer on the wards, but when he was he had to escort patients down to the smoking area for a cig. Vaping on the wards is a no no. Some of his patients were quite dangerous individuals. However, they've yet to ban smoking in gaols due to the volatile nature of the inmates.
It's a mad world (no pun intended)

[tomj777]

Apr 2, 2014 15:00:26 GMT buggritt said:

My son is a mental health worker. He also vapes. He's no longer on the wards, but when he was he had to escort patients down to the smoking area for a cig. Vaping on the wards is a no no. Some of his patients were quite dangerous individuals. However, they've yet to ban smoking in gaols due to the volatile nature of the inmates.
It's a mad world (no pun intended)

I'm sorry to say that I can understand why that would be the case on medium to high risk MH wards. The immediate risk is that just as Smokers carry lighters, we have noxious liquids... The risk of self-harm is real. And that's aside from the hobbyist vaping where we tend to use glass pipettes and syringes (the latter will cause problems for most recovering IV addicts and as many will know, Dual Diagnosis is commonplace)... 

 As an aside, does anyone know if vaping is permissible in prisons?

[buggritt]

Smoking in prisons is allowed, in their own cells. Rum world innitt? Vaping is banned. You could not make it up.
There would be no need for anyone on any ward in a hospital to carry their own lighters of course. You could lock them up with the scissors.