The relationship between tobacco use and healthy living behavior with psychopathology severity, executive functions and hopelessness in schizophrenia patients

Schizophrenia is a disorder that can manifest itself with different clinical presentations and results in severe impairments in social life. It is also believed that physical illnesses are highly prevalent in schizophrenia patients, which may be related not only to medication side effects but also to an unhealthy lifestyle. The reasons that drive schizophrenia patients into this unhealthy lifestyle have not yet been fully identified, and the purpose of our study is to investigate the relationship between tobacco use and healthy lifestyle behaviors with insight, hopelessness, executive functions, and psychopathology in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia. Our study included 86 outpatients who followed up at the schizophrenia outpatient clinic of Karadeniz Technical University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, between March and August 2022, and who agreed to participate in the study and were diagnosed with schizophrenia according to the DSM-V diagnosis. All participants were administered a sociodemographic data form, Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors Scale II, Fagerström Nicotine Dependency Test, Beck Hopelessness Scale, Trail Making Test, and Three Components of Insight Rating Scale. In our study, factors influencing healthy lifestyle behaviors in schizophrenia patients included gender, employment status, hopelessness, Trail Making Test scores, and PANSS positive, negative, disorganized, and excited symptoms. In the regression analysis, the factors predicting the total healthy lifestyle behavior score were found to be the severity of negative symptoms and hopelessness. Our study demonstrates that negative symptoms and hopelessness negatively impact healthy lifestyle behaviors. Recognizing and addressing hopelessness in patients can contribute to the course and treatment of the illness. To prevent the sedentary lifestyle that accompanies hopelessness, it appears important to incorporate adjustments to treatment planning aimed at enhancing healthy lifestyle skills. Keywords: Healthy lifestyle behavior, schizophrenia, tobacco use