Smoking Cessation
How is it treated?
Why should you quit?
The US Surgeon General?s Report of 1990 detailed a timeline as to how cessation from nicotine improves a person?s health status. While this report is somewhat dated, it still holds true today.
- 20 minutes after the last cigarette: heart rate drops
- 12 hours after the last cigarette: the carbon monoxide level in the blood drops back to normal
- 2 weeks to 3 months after the last cigarette: circulation improves and lung function increases
- 1 to 9 months after the last cigarette: coughing and shortness of breath decrease; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs) begin to function normally again, increasing the ability to clean out the lungs and thus reduce the risk for lung infection
- 1 year after the last cigarette: risk of heart disease is decreased in half compared to a smoker?s risk
- 5 years after the last cigarette: as early as 5 years after quitting smoking, risk for having a stroke is the same as a person who never smoked
- 10 years after the last cigarette: lung cancer death rate is about half of a smoker?s. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, cervix, and pancreas decrease as well.
- 15 years after the last cigarette: the risk of heart disease is the same as a person who never smoked.
Five stages of smoking cessation
There are five stages of smoking cessation. These stages can help a person determine how much further he/she must go in order to achieve complete smoking cessation.
- Precontemplation: the person has no desire to quit
- Contemplation: the person has a desire to quit but no quitting plan
- Preparation: the person has a desire to quit within one month and has a quitting plan
- Action: the person has quit for one day to six months
- Maintenance: the person has quit for at least six months
Successful treatment of nicotine addiction is a continual process. An addiction is not like an infection where you take a medication and the infection completely resolves in a short amount of time. On average, a person tries to quit smoking eleven different times before becoming successful. Quitting "cold turkey" with no additional help is often only successful in persons who smoke infrequently. People who smoke greater than ten cigarettes per day often require medication and psychological therapy to aid them in successfully refraining from smoking on a permanent basis.
Multiple products are available to help you quit smoking including nicotine replacement aids (e.g. gums, patches) and medications such as Zyban, Chantix, and antidepressant medications. For individuals who are highly addicted to nicotine or who have smoked for many years, combination therapy (eg. nicotine patch plus Zyban) can be tried. However, it's best to try one therapy first and if that therapy fails, then proceed to combination therapy. Therapy needs to be tailored to the individual. Click on the drug class links below to learn more.
Additionally, non-drug therapy is key to success at smoking cessation. Click on our "Helping Yourself" link above to learn helpful tips to stop smoking.
Finally, some people have found success with alternative therapies such as hypnosis.
Drug classes used to treat Smoking Cessation Alpha 4 Beta 2 Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Agonist Alpha-2 Agonists Nicotine Replacement Therapy Tricyclic Antidepressants Zyban
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How is it treated?
