[Wish to change smoking behaviour among staff and patients of a psychiatric hospital].

Objective To examine smoking behaviour and motivation to reach abstinence among staff and patients of a psychiatric hospital.Methods In two due day surveys all in-patients and staff of the Centre for Psychiatry Weissenau were interviewed by a questionnaire.Results The response rate was 78.5 %. 442 (48 %) out of 933 subjects (523 patients, 410 staff) were smokers. Patients were smoking more frequently than staff (58 % vs. 34 %) and were more severely nicotine-dependent. Significant gender differences were observed with regard to prevalence and nicotin dependence. 57 % said they wanted to stop smoking and 34 % would appreciate therapeutic offers. There were no significant differences between patients and staff.Conclusions Psychiatric patients are as motivated as staff for offers about smoking cessation. There is a need for therapeutic offers. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.