Recently, a research team from the University of California in the United States published a paper in the authoritative medical journal The Journal of General Internal Medicine, pointing out that e-cigarettes not only help smokers with psychological disorders such as depression and autism quit smoking, but also have strong harm reduction effects. Psychologists should promote e-cigarettes to smokers to save their lives.

Psychological disease patients are one of the most severely affected groups by cigarettes. In the United States, the smoking rate of mental illness patients (number of cigarette users/total number * 100%) is about 25%, twice that of the general population. Among the 520000 deaths caused by cigarettes each year, approximately 40% are due to psychological disorders. We must help smokers with mental illness quit smoking. However, their dependence on nicotine is quite high, and ordinary smoking cessation methods are almost ineffective. We need to find new methods to quit smoking based on their characteristics and needs, "the author wrote in the paper.

The official website of the World Health Organization describes smoking cessation as "Quitting tobacco", which means quitting tobacco because the nicotine in cigarettes does not cause cancer, and the health hazards are nearly 7000 chemicals and 69 carcinogens produced by tobacco combustion. Electronic cigarettes do not contain the tobacco burning process and can reduce the harm of cigarettes by 95%. Researchers believe that they have the potential to become a new smoking cessation tool.

Research has shown that smokers with psychological disorders who use electronic cigarettes to assist in quitting smoking have a significantly higher success rate than those who use other quitting methods. The author of the paper points out that this is because patients with psychological disorders are more difficult to overcome nicotine withdrawal symptoms such as irritability, anxiety, and headache compared to ordinary smokers, and the use of electronic cigarettes is similar in movement and experience to cigarettes, which has a significant effect on alleviating nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

Electronic cigarettes are also more easily accepted by smokers with mental illnesses. Research has found that many patients with mental illness may resist the smoking cessation medication provided by doctors, but among those who want to quit, 50% of them voluntarily choose to switch to e-cigarettes.

It is the psychologist who should take the initiative to make changes. For a long time, in order to close the distance between patients and patients, most psychologists have not actively asked patients to quit smoking, and some doctors even give cigarettes as prizes to hospitalized patients. Electronic cigarettes have strong harm reduction effects, are easily accepted by smokers with psychological disorders, and have a significant effect in assisting smoking cessation. Psychologists can fully recommend electronic cigarettes as a "treatment" tool to smokers and patients.
The smoking rate in the United States is decreasing year by year, but the smoking rate of mental illness patients is only increasing. We need to pay attention to this. Although e-cigarettes are not omnipotent, they are particularly effective in helping smokers with mental illness quit smoking and reduce harm. If psychological healthcare institutions can take these scientific evidence seriously and promote e-cigarettes to smokers in a timely manner, it will save hundreds of thousands of lives in the future, "the author wrote in the paper.