Project led by Judith Dyson
Project Aims
- To develop a brief intervention offering e-cigarettes, and a continued support programme given by mental health professionals that meets the needs of people with serious mental illness who smoke and have declined help to quit.
- To assess if the intervention results in e-cigarette use, cigarette reduction, and quitting.
People with serious mental illnesses, such as schizophrenia, are more likely to smoke and consequently develop cardiovascular disease and cancers approximately 10-20 years earlier than people without. People who decline help to stop smoking can be helped with the support of an e-cigarette. Continued skilled support has been shown to improve sustained quitting in people with serious mental illnesses. This study, scheduled to begin in January 2024, will involve working with mental health practitioners and people with serious mental illnesses who smoke, and we will seek to understand their thoughts about e-cigarettes and associated support to reduce or quit smoking. We will identify the best ways to support smoking reduction and quitting and develop an intervention. We will conduct a large-scale study to assess whether our intervention leads to smoking cessation and compare intervention costs with benefits to health.
Find out more about the Centre for Social Care, Health and Related Research