ABSTRACT
The prevalence of cigarette smoking is significantly higher among patients with schizophrenia than in the general population. Several authors explained this excess of smoking by the self-medication hypothesis. It suggests that patients with schizophrenia smoke to reduce psychotic symptoms or antipsychotic side effects. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the prevalence of tobacco consumption in patients with schizophrenia and to test if smoking reduces psychotic and extra-pyramidal symptoms. We included 115 patients with schizophrenia [DSM IV] treated with conventional antipsychotics. We assessed psychotic symptoms with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale [PANSS] and extrapyramidal symptoms with the Simpson-Angus scale. Prevalence of smoking was 60% [80% in men and 22.5% in women]. The majority of them started their consumption before their illness. Smokers and non-smokers had similar rates of psychotic and extrapyramidal symptoms with comparable doses of antipsychotics and anticholinergic agents which were prescribed for similar durations. In this study, patients with schizophrenia smoke a lot for reasons other than reducing psychotic or extrapyramidal symptoms