Smoking Your Brains Away

The link between smoking cigarettes and mental illness is well-established, but scientists have long pondered which comes first — the habit or the mental illness.⁠ ⁠

Now, using health data from more than 350,000 people, geneticists out of Denmark’s Aarhus University have found significant evidence that smoking cigarettes can actually lead to mental disorders.

Researchers tracked the healthcare outcomes of people who began smoking in their late teens and found that they often weren’t admitted to hospitals for mental distress until they were at least in their 30s.⁠ ⁠

“The numbers speak for themselves,” a researcher said in a press release.

“Smoking does cause mental illness.”⁠

This had been a longstanding point of contention among researchers and has been established through observation now.⁠