A Review of Pharmacological and Educational Approaches for Tobacco Cessation

Abstract

Assisting patients to quit smoking continues to be critical for all health care providers as the Surgeon General’s report in 2004 reported a significant increase in the number of diseases caused by smoking. Awareness of the extreme addictiveness of nicotine may help health care providers increase empathy for patients attempting to quit. Health care providers can identify the patient’s stage of change, according to the Transtheoretical Model, and incorporate appropriate pharmacological and educational methods to aid in the quit attempt.