Is smoking during bipolar treatment dangerous?

Question

Hello doctor,

My fiance is suffering from bipolar disorder, and he is in treatment for the same for the past six months. He had the habit of smoking and drinking. In between, he had taken some drugs also. He was in the hospital for 45 days. Now he has medicine, but he started smoking again. Is this dangerous?

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

Bipolar disorder and drug abuse are very closely related and are often present together. The reason is that in the phase of mania, patients are involved in pleasure seeking activities and using drugs is one of them. On the other hand, in the depressive phase, patients use the substance to deal with their loneliness and sad mood. The use of substance and drug should be discouraged. The medicines of bipolar disorder should be continued until the doctor advises it to stop. Use of smoking or any other drug use is dangerous in the sense that it decreases the potency of the medicines. As a result, higher doses of drugs will be needed, or its also possible that the patient will not get well easily. Thank you.