August 24, 2019 - 13:40 AMT
Depression, binge drinking on rise among former smokers

The prevalence of depression, marijuana use, and alcohol abuse among former cigarette smokers in the U.S. have all increased since the mid-2000s, according to data through 2016 from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), MedPage Today reports.

Prevalence of past-year major depressive episodes among former smokers rose from 4.88% to 6.04% from 2002 to 2016 (P=0.04 for trend), reported Renee D. Goodwin, PhD, of City University of New York, and colleagues in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The NSDUH sample included about 4,500 former smokers each year.

Tobacco use among adults remains at record low levels, with around 14% of U.S. adults identified as current cigarette smokers in 2017, compared with roughly 21% in 2005 and around 44% in the mid-1960s.

But the increase in depression and substance abuse among former smokers over the last decade has the potential to negatively impact overall smoking trends, the group indicated, given that these are well-recognized risk factors for smoking-cessation relapse.

Prevalence of past-year cannabis use among former smokers also nearly doubled during the study period, from 5.35% to 10.09%, and past-month binge drinking also increased, from 17.22% to 22.33%, both with P