VI Conference on Tobacco and Mental Health. Tobacco and mental health, the challenge remains

On September the 30th we celebrated the 6th Tobacco and Mental Health Confernce after a few years without being able to celebrate it due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Secretary of Public Health of Catalonia, Dra. Carmen Cabezas welcomed the conference and emphasized the importance of intervening in tobacco control and especially in people affected by mental disorders. She also highlighted the new tobacco control measures announced a few days ago by the Minister of Health, especially the gratuity of drugs needed to stop smoking for people with socioeconomic vulnerability, including many of those with serious mental disorders.

After the presentation of the conference, led by Esteve Fernández (ICO) and Antoni Gual (IDIBAPS), the program followed with a blog on intervention in times of COVID-19 where Gemma Nieva (Vall d’Hebron Hospital), made a review of the scientific evidence on the relationship between covid and tobacco consumption, highlighting the worst prognosis for people who smoke. Next, Cristina Pinet (Sant Pau Hospital) explained how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the results of smoking treatments, and how it impacted especially during strict lockdown for those with a short period of abstinence.

Following, a discussion moderated by Josep Maria Suelves (ASPCAT) took place, in order to debate how the tobacco intervention was experienced during the pandemic, with Mireia Graell (Hospital Clínic), Fernando Dinamarca (Hospital de Sant Pau) and Araceli Valverde (ASPCAT). The resources used for telephone visits and teleconferences during the pandemic will continue to be used in a complementary way to face-to-face care to enhance proximity with the patient.

After the break, Sílvia Mondon (Hospital Clínic) moderated the next blog, focused on professionals and their training in smoking intervention. Firstly, Antònia Raich (Althaia Foundation) presented a study carried out on first-year mental health residents, verifying the little training in tobacco and alcohol intervention received during their university career, and how this low training received was related to a low level of intervention in their patients.

Secondly, Francina Fonseca told us about another study carried out in several hospitals describing the barriers for mental health professionals to intervene in the tobacco consumption of their patients. This study shows that many professionals feel unprepared to intervene and only a minority of patients say they have been asked if they want to quit smoking.

Next, Montse Ballbè presented another study on the level of tobacco control in mental health units in Catalonia over the last 10 years, which highlights how much progress has been made in these services to become completely smoke-free and, consequently, how the intervention to quit smoking has increased, although there is still a great margin for improvement.

After that, there was a debate on the tobacco intervention training received during the university career and during the years of residence, with the participation of three mental health residents, Yudit Ribas, Laia Tardón and Bárbara Citolé (nursing , medicine, and psychology respectively). It is noted that there is a need to increase the dissemination of the existing courses covering how to help quit smoking among mental health residents.

Presenting the newes features from the Xarxa, Laura Antón introduced the new online course addressing tobacco use in patients with mental disorders and addictions and other training on smoking intervention.

The final presentation was given by Rafael Maldonado, professor at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM), who spoke about the interactions between nicotine and THC, and the influence of both in the risk of addiction.

Filled to full capacity, we deeply thank all the attendees who came and all the participants who made the day a very interesting event and a complete success.

We hope to be back again in two years!