Nicotine levels high among smokers committing suicide

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 18 Oct 2004 - 11:00 PDT

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Nicotine levels in the blood of smokers who committed suicide is three-and-a-half times that of smokers who died in accidents or from disease, researchers have found.

Fumio Moriya, assistant professor at Kochi University's Medical Faculty, Japan, and other researchers carried out investigations on 31 people for nicotine during autopsies conducted from October 2002 to December 2003.

While accepting that nicotine had a tranquilizing effect, Moriya concluded that smoking too much could lead to depression and trigger suicidal tendencies.

Of the 31 people studied, 13 were smokers. From eight who had committed suicide, the researchers found 65.1 to 205 micrograms of nicotine per 1 liter of blood....... CONTINUES........http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp