Smoking Cessation

Smoking cessation is simply the effort to stop smoking or to quit smoking tobacco products. Nicotine is an addictive substance, especially when taken in by inhaling tobacco smoke, this is probably because of the rapid absorption through the lungs. Tobacco use is one of the major causes of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Research in western countries has found that approximately 3-5% of quit smoking attempts do succeed using willpower alone and clinical trials have shown that Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)  can double this rate to approximately 6-10%. This is a small effect but considered  worthwhile. Multi-session psychological support from a trained counselor, either individually or in groups has been shown in clinical trials to have a very similar effect to that for NRT.

Much data has been collected on the use of combining medication and psychological support. Apart from NRT, medication that have been studied in clinical trials are: the tricyclic anti-depressant nortriptyline, bupropion (Zyban,or Quomem in some countries) and the nicotinic partial agonist, varenicline (Chantix in the US and Champix in other countries). Thorough reviews of the evidence for all these methods of stopping are available thru the Cochrane Library. it is our opinion that it is best to stop smoking or quit smoking without the use of pills, drugs or medicaitons, which suppress the immune system , have serious risks and tax the liver.

There are many people and organizations that claim to have effective methods for helping smokers to stop smoking. Any smoker thinking of paying money for such help should be well advised to ask whether the claims of success xcan be proven.

A range of population level strategies such as ad campaigns, smoking restriction policies, and tobacco taxes have been used to promote smoking cessation. Of these, raising the cost of smoking is the one that has the strongest evidence of making people stop smoking who clearly can't affod to smoke.

Smoking cessation will usually lead to a longer and healthier life. Stopping in early adulthood can add up to ten years or more of healthy life and stopping in one's 60s can still add 3 years or more healthy life. Stopping smoking is usually associated with better mental health and spending less of one's life with the typical diseases of old age.

The most common short-term effects of stopping smoking or quitting smoking that are reported are: increased irritability, depression, anxiety, restlessness, some difficulty concentrating, increased appetite, constipation, mouth ulcers and increased susceptibility to upper respiratory tract infections. These may last for up to 4 weeks, though increased appetite typically can last for more than three months. The most obvious long-term effect is weight gain but measures can be taken to avoid this.

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