The present study was conducted to address these conundrums of the smoking–suicide relationship: (1) whether prior smoking predicts SRO; (2) whether prior SRO predicts smoking; (3) whether smoking cessation and its corollary, duration of smoking abstinence, affects risk for SRO and (4) whether these relationships are independent of comorbid psychiatric illness. Also explored were the effects of smoking status changes between the two waves of the NESARC on risk of future SRO. The two-wave format, the large sample and extensive data on psychiatric comorbidity that characterised the NESARC22 permitted assessment of these questions.
