Smoking Cessation Esay - Essay Example

In a population of 45 million adults in U.S. 21% are cigarette smokers (Gerhardt and Stuart, 2009). Major component of cigarette; nicotine is extremely addictive and it increases the level of dopamine in brain creating feelings of satisfaction and contentment. Cessation of smoking causes withdrawal symptoms. Smoking cessation ensures a better health quality of life by reducing the risks of coronary artery disease, stroke and COPD. According to Pignone and Salazar (2009), smoking cessation can increase life expectancy of up to 3 years in women smokers and 2 years in men.

In other researches, the life expectancy of a non-smoker is 13-14 years higher than a smoker (Chandler and Rennard, 2010). Studies have confirmed that smoking cessation has inflicts immediate health benefits to the individual. Several interventions are successful in smoking cessation which includes counseling, pharmacotherapy or a combination of both. In this respect, the most important factor is client’s self chosen health goal to quit smoking and both pharmacotherapy and counseling prove to be useful for such patients, however, in patients with unwilling behavior to quit pharmacotherapy is ineffective.

Medical counseling approach should emphasize on health and economic benefits of cessation, motivational interviews, patient education on disease risk factors, community/family support and relapse prevention. Pharmacological therapies consist of nicotine replacement therapy which includes nicotine patch, gums, lozenges, nasal sprays, inhalers etc. (Pignone and Salazar, 2009). All of these have shown to be equally effective in smoking cessation. In addition, anti-depressant therapy with drugs such as Bupropion, varenicline and Clonidine have been proven as effective smoking cessation agents.

Several studies have suggested that a combination of these pharmacological therapies is quite effective i.e. nicotine gum with nicotine patch etc. (Chandler and Rennard, 2010). Non-pharmacological interventions include practices such as hypnosis, acupuncture, herbal supplement, support groups etc. Several studies have been conducted over the past few decades to relate smoking cessation and health promotion in individuals. Two of these are discussed below. Ellerbeck et al., (2009), studied the varying levels of disease management in randomized trials.

The research divided the clients into three treatment groups i.e. pharmacotherapy alone (nicotine replacement and anti-depressant therapy i.e. bupropion), combined pharmacotherapy with moderate intensity disease management and high intensity disease management comprising of counseling and provider feedback on smokers with or without the desire to quit. For pharmacotherapy with moderate intensity disease management, 2 counseling calls were made in every 6 months whereas in high intensity disease management 6 counseling calls were made in 6 months.

Results demonstrated that self reported abstinence rates were much better in moderate and high intensity disease management than in pharmacotherapy alone. 23.5% and 27.9% abstinence rates were reported respectively for these groups. This group (37-60% patients) reported to have discussed smoking cessation and its potential benefits with their physicians. Also, free