Smoking e-cigarettes, also known as vaping, has become an increasingly common practice in the past decade, with recent estimates of lifetime prevalence of 23% globally.Reference Tehrani, Rajabi, Ghelichi- Ghojogh, Nejatian and Jafari1 Despite this, the incidence of documentation of e-cigarette use in medical records by clinicians remains relatively low,Reference Young-Wolff, Klebaner, Folck, Carter-Harris, Salloum and Prochaska2,Reference Winden, Chen, Wang, Sarkar, Carter and Melton3 perhaps indicating that e-cigarette use is not routinely screened for or that patients do not inform clinicians about their use.
As smoking e-cigarettes is a relatively new phenomenon, there remains a paucity of literature regarding its adverse effects. However, recent research has demonstrated a host of side-effects, including but not limited to cytotoxicity, oxidative stress and pulmonary injury.Reference Marques, Piqueras and Sanz4 Although the impacts on mental health remain largely unknown, a recent cross-sectional study by Oh et al found a positive correlation between vaping and psychotic experiences in college students in the USA, even after adjusting for marijuana use and the presence of depression or anxiety.Reference Oh, Banawa, Lee, Zhou and Huh5 Similarly, a recent scoping review found positive associations between e-cigarette use and depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts.Reference Javed, Usmani, Sarfraz, Sarfraz, Hanif and Firoz6 Although these findings do not necessarily suggest a causative relationship, especially acknowledging the significant heterogeneity among e-cigarette devices, these studies do indicate a potential link between e-cigarette use and mental illness.
As such, there may be benefit to routinely screening for e-cigarette use in a standard mental health history. Data derived from health services, as well as individual clinician experiences, can assist in determining the potential risks of this increasingly popular practice moving forward.
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