A Critical Review and Evaluation of Smoking Control Methods

Control of Cigarette Smoking from a Psychological Perspective

“…As noted above, when reliable treatment effects do occur, they decrease rapidly during the first month, and continue to decrease sharply until the third month, where they level off, with some small additional decrease through the fi rst year (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24). With few notable exceptions (15,(57)(58)(59), most studies do not give the complete picture of relapse.…”

“…Where data are available, evaluation of outcome is generally difficult because of design limitations and differences. These difficulties have been discussed in detail (2,17,24,25). The major problems are as follows.…”

“…Those studies that have investigated the effects of either individual or interacting variables on the modifi cation of smoking behavior have shown conflicting results, which may be partially explained by differences in research design. Few studies are prospective; various criteria have been used for grouping individ uals as successes, nonsuccesses, or recidivists; follow-up methods differ; differences exist in the definitions of variables assessed and in the measures used to test them; and a variety of names have been used to describe particular traits (24). The variability in the results of these studies may also be related to the limited number of factors investigated, often without allowing for the multiple interactions that occur among variables.…”

“…The long-term smoking cessation rates obtained in the many large-scale smoking control programs are little more encouraging than those in the general population (15,16). When reliable treatment effects do occur, they decrease rapidly during the first month, and continue to decrease sharply until the third month, where they level off, with some small additional decrease through the fi rst year (17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24).…”

Control of Cigarette Smoking from a Social Perspective

“…Excellent reviews and evaluations are available to the interested reader; one useful summary is that by Pechacek in Smoking and Health (26). Whereas an overall conclusion from this vast literature is not possible, it seems that no one technique or approach is clearly superior to any other, that rates of success in helping people quit smoking are relatively modest (about 25% successfully quitting after one year), and that we have yet to learn how to maintain cessation once achieved (27,28). Of course, there are exceptions to this rather gloomy conclusion.…”