“People with first episodes of psychosis were three times more likely to be smokers,” said a statement from King’s College London’s Department of Psychosis Studies, which took part in the meta-analysis.”The researchers also found that daily smokers developed psychotic illness around a year earlier than non-smokers.”It has long been hypothesised that higher smoking rates among psychosis sufferers could be explained by people seeking relief from boredom or distress, or self-medicating against the symptoms or side-effects of antipsychotic medication.But if this were so, researchers would expect smoking rates to increase only after people had developed psychosis.

Source: Can smoking drive you mad? Study suggests it might