Smokers trying to quit need full medical support

Most smokers do not talk with their doctor when trying to quit but most believe support from their doctor would improve their chances of quitting.

This was the result of SUPPORT (Smoking: Understanding People’s Perceptions, Opinions and Reactions to Tobacco), one of the largest international surveys of smokers’ attitudes toward smoking and smoking cessation sponsored by Pfizer and conducted by Harris Interactive. 

Some 2,500 adult smokers aged 25+ from 10 countries were interviewed for the study. Sixty-seven percent of the respondents who are currently trying to quit agree that it is the hardest thing they have ever tried to do.

Most smokers continue to believe that quitting is primarily up to their individual willpower. However, the survey demonstrates that individual willpower alone is usually not enough. Over half of smokers surveyed have tried to quit a minimum of three times and 80 percent of those who have tried to quit but failed have attempted to do so using willpower alone.

In a report of the Tobacco Advisory Group in London, the Royal College of Physicians said smoking is a chronic relapsing medical condition that typically involves a physical and psychological addiction to nicotine, and studies have shown nicotine to be as addictive as “hard” drugs such as heroin or cocaine.  

“‘What I found most interesting was that while most smokers felt that they were addicted they also believed that willpower alone could overcome this,“ said Prof. Robert West, Cancer Research UK. “We need to do more to educate smokers about what they can do to give their ‘willpower’ a helping hand, such as support and treatment.”

Prof. Andrew Pipe, medical director of the University of Ottawa’s Heart Institute Prevention and Rehabilitation Center, said, “It’s essential that the doctor-patient dialogue on smoking takes place to ensure smokers are motivated and supported with appropriate advice, tools and medication to help them to quit. It’s equally important that doctors raise the issue with their smoking patients.”

With the recent approval by the Bureau of Food and Drugs of varenicline tartrate, a new prescription drug from Pfizer that helps adults curb smoking, patients who are determined to quit smoking are encouraged to consult a physician who can discuss with them the benefits of this smoking cessation treatment.

Clinical studies have shown that with varenicline tartrate’s unique mechanism of action, smokers who take the medicine for 12 weeks will be smoke-free 44 percent of the time one year after starting therapy. 

If they extend the therapy to 24 weeks, more than 70 percent of the smokers will have stopped smoking even after one year from start of therapy. These are very high success rates versus those trying to quit without medication support.

Varenicline tartrate doesn’t contain nicotine, the substance believed to cause addiction to smoking, and has dual action against specific nicotine receptors in the brain. It helps decrease withdrawal symptoms and craving associated with quitting as well as obliterate the pleasure derived from smoking.