Smoking linked to poor mental health

Researchers have found that smoking not only causes physical damage, but is also detrimental to mental health. According to the study, the research team from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Belgrade and University of Pristina together, surveyed more than 2,000 students enrolled at Serbian universities with differing socio-political and economic environments.

They found that students who smoked had rates of clinical depression that were twice to three times higher than did their non-smoking peers.

“Our study adds to the growing body of evidence that smoking and depression are closely linked,” while it may be too early to say that smoking causes depression, tobacco does appear to have an adverse effect on our mental health,” said study lead author Hagai Levine at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel.

—IANS