The physician's role in smoking cessation. A present and future agenda

Medical views in the United States on the effects of smoking have shifted dramatically since the published evidence in 1958 established the link between smoking and fatal disease. Today's physician should be a nonsmoking role model, whose workplace both directly and indirectly teaches smoking cessation skills. Publications on smoking cessation techniques from the National Institutes of Health along with intervention tools such as patient smoking history questionnaires are available free of charge to physicians. Patient histories are critical to the intervention process, for they provide essential clues and information about which stage in cessation of smoking the patient has already reached: precontemplation, contemplation, action, and maintenance. Different approaches and techniques are required at each stage. The most important objective for the physician with a patient at the stage of contemplating quitting is to initiate a conversation leading to a directive to quit, with benefits of quitting stressed as reinforcement. Actively motivated patients committed to quit dates may need both educational and pharmacologic support; issues such as nicotine dependence and withdrawal symptoms must be addressed. Pharmacologic therapy at this time may consist of substitution of nicotine-containing gum (nicotine polacrilex) for cigarettes. Used in sufficient, regular dosages, the nicotine gum has been found to help diminish withdrawal symptoms following smoking cessation. Other drug therapies are currently under study. For now, nicotine replacement therapy (where indicated) is to be used for at least three months, the period of greatest chance of relapse. The physician should continue to encourage patients who have quit smoking to forestall relapses, while tacitly understanding that the incidence of relapse is high in first-time quitters. Hospital inpatients provide an opportunity to initiate bedside smoking cessation programs. The hope is that, in the future, hospitals will involve the entire health team in comprehensive smoking cessation programs.