Although high rates of smoking have been reported among psychiatric patients, only a few studies examined the prevalence of smoking in bipolar disorder, and findings are inconsistent. We investigated smoking among bipolar patients.

We examined the prevalence of smoking in of 102 patients that met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition criteria for bipolar I disorder in Israel and evaluated the relationship between smoking and demographic and clinical data.

Fifty-five of the bipolar patients (53.9%) smoked, with a rate that is 2.36 times higher than among the general population in Israel (22.8%). Significant relationships were revealed between smoking and lifetime history of alcohol dependence/abuse (P = .02), between smoking and history of drug use (P ≤ .01), and between smoking and age of illness onset (P = .04).

The cross-sectional nature of the study and the relatively small sample size preclude generalization of the findings. Nicotine levels were not measured; thus, the information regarding smoking was subjective.

Bipolar patients smoke more than the general population. Bipolar patients that are moderate or heavy smokers are more likely than nonsmokers to consume alcohol and abuse psychoactive substances. Contrary to findings of previous studies, no association was found between clinical variables of bipolar patients and smoking.