June 21, 2023 4:07PM # Nicotine E‑Cigarettes Might Do More than Save the Lives of People with Schizophrenia By [Jeffrey A. Singer](https://www.cato.org/people/jeffrey-singer) --- SHARE Mental health practitioners have long known that cigarette smoking is prevalent among people with schizophrenia. Research estimates [as many as 88 percent](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/advances-in-psychiatric-treatment/article/cigarette-smoking-and-schizophrenia/AF9CC53E7777F37A8FF6E27F4336DBEE) of people with schizophrenia smoke cigarettes, a rate much higher than in people with other psychiatric disorders and almost three times the rate of the general population. The heavy smoking rate causes many people with schizophrenia to develop smoking-related illnesses, from cardiovascular disease to cancer, significantly lowering their life expectancy. Recent studies suggest that nicotine [normalizes](https://www.colorado.edu/today/2017/01/23/nicotine-normalizes-brain-deficits-key-schizophrenia) cognitive deficits, called “[hypofrontality](https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.4274),” in people with schizophrenia. There is evidence that nicotine improves [short-term memory](https://bpspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.12578) in schizophrenic patients. Nicotine’s beneficial effects on schizophrenia have led many researchers to suspect that people with this disease are self-medicating. Today in [Filter](https://filtermag.org/schizophrenia-vaping-documentary/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=filter), journalist and filmmaker Helen Redmond unveiled a new short documentary film that she and her colleague, Marilena Marchetti, produced profiling a multicenter trial underway called the [Genesis Trial](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.15.20141457v2), led by Dr. Pasquale Caponetto of the University of Catania, to see if nicotine-containing e‑cigarettes can successfully help schizophrenic patients who are long-term smokers to quit tobacco. The study is a 12-month randomized, double-blind, smoking cessation trial that compares the effectiveness of 5 percent nicotine and 1.5 percent nicotine vaping devices. The filmmakers flew to Sicily to interview several trial participants at two psychiatric residential facilities. Watch the video “Switch: A Documentary About Smoking and Schizophrenia” [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vB7GiGvxb8). Lawmakers and policymakers in the [United States](https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/26/health/fda-blocks-ecig-products/index.html) and [around the globe](https://www.cato.org/blog/new-underground-market-e-cigarettes-will-soon-begin-flourishing-australia) seek to make it more difficult for adults to obtain nicotine-containing e‑cigarettes, especially those with [flavors](https://www.cato.org/commentary/massachusetts-legislators-rush-judgment-vaping-will-cause-more-harm), even while [research](https://www.dropbox.com/s/b8uwoxay6i2fzb2/Docket%20No.%20FDA-2017-N-6565_FARSALINOS.pdf) [shows](https://vaping360.com/learn/juul-flavors/) tobacco quitters prefer flavored vaping, [Harm reduction](https://www.cato.org/blog/e-cigarettes-harm-reduction-pregnant-tobacco-smokers) advocates have long argued that nicotine e‑cigarettes are helpful smoking cessation tools and more effective than nicotine patches or gum. When it comes to smokers with schizophrenia, nicotine vapes may reduce cognitive dysfunction at the same time. ##### Related Tags [Health Care](https://www.cato.org/health-care) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).