[Clinical evaluation of smokers]

The number of patients who continue to smoke after a major cardiac event is high. More and more often the patients ask the cardiologist to help them quitting smoking. In the last few years the rapid developments in the neuropharmacological field set up the bases for a more effective and evidence based treatment of nicotine dependence. Thus a number of reviews, guidelines and original articles has been published in internal medicine, cardiology and pneumology journals and their main purpose was to increase as much as possible the number of physicians able to set up a "specialistic" nicotine dependence treatment. The aim of this article is instead to review the stages of the smoker clinical evaluation in a "specialistic" environment and to translate them in practical tips ready to be used in the cardiological daily practice. Three issues are specifically reviewed: motivation to quit, degree of nicotine dependence and the role of mood disturbances.