Quitting smoking was not associated with heightened binge drinking or symptoms of depression and anxiety among smokers with serious mental illness (SMI), a recent study found. This study is a secondary analysis of the OPTIN trial, which demonstrated the effectiveness of proactive outreach for smoking cessation among Minnesota Health Care Programs enrollees. Participants with ICD-9 codes indicating schizophrenia spectrum disorders, psychotic disorders, bipolar disorders, or severe/recurrent major depressive disorder were categorized as having SMI (n=939); remaining smokers were categorized as non-SMI (n=1,382). Multivariable regressions modeled the association between incident smoking cessation and binge drinking, PHQ-2 depression scores, and PROMIS anxiety scores in the 2 groups. Researchers found:

• Quitting smoking was not associated with binge drinking among those with SMI, but was associated with less binge drinking among those without SMI.
• Quitting smoking was not associated with PHQ-2 depression scores among those with or without SMI.
• However, quitting smoking was associated with lower mean PROMIS anxiety scores for those with SMI, but not those without SMI.