Not Just a Pill: Toward a Tailored Antismoking Intervention for Respiratory Diseases

Tobacco cigarette smoking is a serious epidemic that kills several million people each year. Nevertheless, a significant percentage of patients with respiratory diseases continue to smoke after diagnosis, despite the assistance offered, thus reducing the efficacy of the treatments prescribed by the health providers and dramatically increasing the mortality rate. International guidelines have advocated the importance of including smoking cessation protocols in the management of patients' respiratory conditions and pointed out the need to deliver integrated and tailored interventions. Consistently with this framework, the commentary proposes a new clinical approach to smoking cessation in patients with respiratory diseases. This approach integrates, according to P5 personalized medicine, pharmacological and psychological aspects affecting smoking behaviors, overcoming the traditional approach mainly based on the pharmacological interventions.