Question by Marso: What is the success rate of an NHS treatment for smoking cessation?
I know NRT doubles someone's chances to stop smoking but I don't know the actual success rate. I'd also like to know what is the average relapse rate i.e. how many times does a person need to go through the whole NHS process before he actually quits. Some references would be really helpful.
Best answer:
People who join an NHS stop smoking support group have a 50% chance of giving up smoking for at least a month.
Clearly this means that most people attempting to give up for good will need to try multiple times. But your chances of holding out longer increase exponentially with each semi-successful attempt.
Tobacco is an extremely pernicious drug, but the number of adult male smokers in the UK has fallen from around 85% in 1945 to around 23% today - so clearly serious progress is being made.
The tobacco companies aren't helping, of course.
What do you think? Answer below!
Stop Smoking Help - Why Are Smoking Cessation Rates So Low?
Smoking is an extremely addictive habit. In fact, 85% of all smokers are physiologically addicted to nicotine. Nicotine addictions can easily be compared to those less tolerated in our society. Nicotine stimulates the pleasure centers in the brain. This is why smokers describe the sensation of satisfaction and contentment with a puff on a cigarette. Here's an amazing number which shows the magnitude of the problem. Consider in the year 2006 alone, 371 billion cigarettes were consumed here in the United States. Judging by that statistic, it may seem easy to see why smoking is so difficult to quit. As usual, there's more to it than what lies at the surface, more than just the physiology behind the habit. Lets look at some real barriers to quitting smoking.
Someone's smoking habit can certainly be attributable to physiology and genetics inherited from parents. In addition, smoking is often triggered by social and environmental cues. For example, everyone knows somebody who only smokes when they go out drinking. Perhaps they smoke more when their stress gets a little too high at work. Whatever the cue, smoking quickly becomes a habit or rather, a conditioned response to the environment. So when "x" happens, smoking a cigarette becomes the response. This is remarkably similar to Pavlov's dogs who became conditioned to salivate when the dinner bell rang.
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What makes smoking so insidious is the combination of the addictive properties of nicotine in our brain with the behavioral conditioning that gets reinforced every single day. Many people fail to recognize the importance of breaking this conditioning element of the process. Unfortunately, nicotine replacement products and other pharmaceutical products cannot help with this aspect of the addiction. This is one reason why smokers relapse. In fact, one-third of smokers will relapse by their fourth year of quitting. They simply find themselves ill-prepared to face these behavioral triggers throughout their days.
Current quit rates seem relatively low and range from 3% to 21% depending upon the method of smoking cessation utilized. Without question though, the success rates always rise, and significantly rise, when adding behavioral counseling. These settings offer a safe environment where these barriers to quitting can be openly explored. People are encouraged to discuss the "why" and the "when" behind their smoking habits. Without this counseling, it becomes quite easy to discover how the less savvy individual may not even think about addressing the underlying behavioral conditioning of their addiction. However, armed with this insight, the smoker can have greater confidence in those very situations which would normally have elicited a smoking response. Being able to recognize those triggers really places the individual at a clear advantage.
It's unfortunate that only 5% of smokers attempting to quit will actually participate in this type of smoking cessation program. Yet, by simply adding a counseling program either in a group setting or private, the smoker can improve their odds of success by up to 20%. This places the smoker in the very best position possible to achieve smoking cessation. Often times though, people who attend such programs become marginalized. The stigma associated with formal counseling programs is quite pervasive in our society and can be enough to deter people from getting the help they need. Many smokers feel they can quit anytime they choose and so underestimate the power of their addiction to nicotine. When you add this mentality to the equation, it becomes very difficult for the smoker to achieve their desired outcome. Thus, smoking quit rates remain relatively low. Interestingly, once a smoker decides they've had it with smoking and takes it for what it truly is, then and only then, will they find the success they hope for.
Use of bupropionis to improve smoking cessation success rates
Animation of bupropionis mechanism of action, when used as a smoking cessation aid
Orignal From: What is the success rate of an NHS treatment for smoking cessation?
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