The prevalence of smoking cigarettes has repeatedly been found to be greater in schizophrenia as compared with other psychiatric patients and the general population. Patients with schizophrenia have been found to engage in heavy smoking and consumption of higher doses of nicotine, probably by deeper inhalation of cigarettes. The aim of the current study was to assess nicotine exposure through smoking by measuring urinary cotinine, the major nicotine metabolite, in a group of smokers from Greece of smokers with schizophrenia and smokers from the general population. Participants were current smokers and belonged to one of two groups: 35 patients with schizophrenia and 48 healthy controls matched in age, education, and gender. The quantitative analysis of cotinine, the major metabolite of nicotine, in urine samples was performed by a modified high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Patients with schizophrenia who smoke presented a significantly larger time interval between last cigarette smoked and urine sample collection, as well as a significantly higher average number of cigarettes consumed daily than normal smokers. Urinary cotinine levels of patients with schizophrenia who smoke did not significantly differ from that of normal smokers when adjusted for average number of cigarettes per day and time interval between last cigarette smoked and urine collection. These results suggest that patients with schizophrenia did not present higher nicotine exposure through smoking compared with smokers from the community. The pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic properties of nicotine, as well as patient medications of the patients may explain our findings.
Information about the rate of smoking and factors associated with initiating and maintaining the behaviour is scarce in Palestine. The aim of this study was to explore the rate of and attitudes towards smoking among An-Najah National University students. During spring 2010, a questionnaire adopted from the Global Health Professionals Survey and the Global Youth Tobacco Survey was administered to 954 randomly selected full-time students. Overall 34.7% of the study sample were cigarette or waterpipe smokers, and this rate was higher among males than females (52.7% versus 16.5%). In logistic regression analysis, sex (male), type of college (humanities), older age and higher family income were predictors of current smoking status. Smokers had more negative attitudes to banning smoking in public areas on campus and to education about the harmful effects of smoking. Antismoking programmes with special attention to males and students in humanities are badly needed.