How about this one: 'Smoking Boosts the Risk of Suicide'?

German researchers, who conducted a study among young people in Munich, have found a clear and alarming link between smoking and suicide.

'Campaigns for reducing smoking should also point to the elevated risk of suicidality for occasional and regular smokers,' say the authors, led by Dr Thomas Bronisch of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich.

Previous studies have seen a link between suicide and smoking but left unsettled the big question: whether smoking causes the malaise or is just a symptom of it.

The latest study, published in the Journal of Affective Disorders, is based on data taken from more than 3,000 people aged between 14 and 24.

Among non-smokers interviewed, nearly 15 per cent reported having had suicidal thoughts, defined as making plans to commit suicide or spending two weeks or longer with the wish to die.

The rate was around 20 per cent among occasional and non-addicted smokers.

Among addicted smokers, up to 30 per cent of this group had suicidal thoughts.

To ensure that the results were not skewed by other factors, the researchers stripped out alcohol use, illicit drug use and a history of depression among the volunteers.

They found the result was the same: The more a person smoked, the likelier he or she would have suicidal thoughts.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE