schizophrenic brother discharged by his case worker

There's been a lot of research into smoking (particularly cannabis, and heavy tobacco consumption) and mental illness, particularly schitzophrenia - some estimates put use in this population as high as 80%. Much of it has focused on correlations (does heavy tobacco use indicate propensity to or severity of mental illnesses; does cannabis use increase the likelihood of developing a mental illness), genetic predispositions to mental illnesses and to nicotine dependency, the effects of nicotine use on psychotropic & neuroleptic drugs (generally decreases medication half life, requiring higher dosing), and smoking cessation or reduction in the mentally ill.

Only a handful of studies have focused on why so many people with mental illnesses, particularly schizophrenia, smoke and so heavily. Here are links to a few of them:

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/...ct/150/12/1856
http://archpsyc.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/62/6/649
http://md1.csa.com/partners/viewreco...&setcookie=yes

I had no idea about this until a fellow Master's student presented her research in class. She has schizophrenia, and became interested through her own use of tobacco to relieve side-effects of her medication. Hope this helps.

Apologies to the OP for this partial thread hijack.

Is it possible for your brother to get a long-lasting injection form of his schizophrenia medication? That would eliminate some of the possible chances of relapse (sorry, if that is not the proper term).

Is there any possibility he could get into a Adult Day Care program? That would prevent social isolation and there might be some assistance with medication.

You are in a tough situation.

Good luck to you!

Here in BC, Canada, care aids can take a medication management course- it's a 2-day course and allows them to administer oral medication that's been pre-measured in home care settings, so there are plenty of home care aids here who are allowed to give pills. Maybe you have something similar in your state? It would definitely be worth it to get in touch with a home care agency and find out anyway, what could it hurt to ask?