Smoking cessation: information for specialists. Agency for Health Care Policy and Research

This Quick Reference Guide for Smoking Cessation Specialists contains strategies and recommendations from Smoking Cessation Clinical Practice Guideline No. 18, designed to assist clinicians, smoking cessation specialists, and health care administrators/insurers/purchasers in identifying tobacco users and supporting and delivering effective smoking cessation interventions. These recommendations were made as a result of an exhaustive and systematic review and analysis of the scientific literature. The primary analytic technique used was meta-analysis. This Quick Reference Guide for Smoking Cessation Specialists highlights the recommendations for successful smoking cessation treatment: Every person who smokes should be offered smoking cessation treatment at every office visit. Clinicians should ask and record the tobacco-use status of every patient. Cessation treatments even as brief as 3 minutes a visit are effective. More intense treatment is more effective in producing long-term abstinence from tobacco. Nicotine replacement therapy (nicotine patches or gum), clinician-delivered social support, and skills training are the three most effective components of smoking cessation treatment. Health care systems should make institutional changes that result in the systematic identification of, and intervention with, all tobacco users at every visit. Recommendations for smoking cessation specialists are: Assess the smoker who has entered an intervention program. Use a variety of clinical specialists. Ensure that the program is sufficiently intensive. Use a variety of program formats. Include effective counseling techniques. Target the smoker's motivation to quit. Provide relapse prevention intervention. Offer nicotine replacement therapy. Arrange follow up contact.