News - Hypertension Week of August 10, 2003/ Vol. 2 No. 32

More than one-third of stroke victims who are smokers continue to light up after suffering a subarachnoid hemorrhage, according to a study in the August issue of Stroke.

Most common in 35- to 65-year-olds, a subarachnoid hemorrhage is a life-threatening stroke that is most often caused by a break in a blood vessel at the base of the brain. High blood pressure as well as smoking can contribute to such hemorrhages.

Researchers at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons studied 620 subarachnoid hemorrhage patients treated between July 1996 and November 2002. Of the 152 patients who were smokers, 56 resumed smoking afterwards.

Patients who continued smoking tended to be depressed, younger and black and to have begun smoking at an earlier age than those who quit, according to the researchers.

The researchers suggested that targeted smoking cessation programs are needed to reduce the high rate of smoking resumption in such patients.

Other sources: Stroke 2003;34:1859