Smoking relapse: a review

This paper reviews nicotine addiction, and discusses the difficulty of withdrawing and remaining abstinent from tobacco. Lapse and relapse are coming to be understood as part of the cessation process itself. The goals of treatment include efforts to prevent or reverse relapse by reducing the impact of relapse factors, thereby to increase the frequency and duration of remissions. Factors reviewed that influence cessation include gender and age, health status, degree of nicotine dependence, exposure to smoking-related cues, emotional state, and use of coping strategies in high-risk situations. Successful intervention modalities include relapse prevention skills training and pharmacologic nicotine replacement. The seriousness of the health consequences of smoking supports continuation and expansion of smoking relapse research.