Providing medication therapy management for smoking cessation patients

Nearly 50 years ago, the Surgeon General of the US Public Health Service released the first report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. The report concluded that cigarette smoking caused lung and laryngeal cancer as well as bronchitis. Today, smoking is one of the leading preventable causes of deaths in the United States. Research has shown that it potentially causes more deaths than human immunodeficiency virus, illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, and firearm-related incidents. Health care providers play a critical role in guiding and directing patients to quit smoking by introducing them to smoking-cessation options. This is due to the fact that if these patients quit, they can reduce their cardiovascular risk. Pharmacists, being one of the easily accessible health care providers, have an advantage over other clinicians when it comes to influencing patients to quit smoking and to modify their lifestyles. Pharmacists through medication therapy management directly interact with these patients to manage medications as well as behavioral factors.