(Smoking cessation: evidence based recommendations for the healthcare system)
This week's BMJ publishes a summary of the new Smoking Cessation Guidelines for Health Professionals which hope to integrate effective and cost effective practices to stop patients from smoking within routine clinical care, throughout the healthcare system in England. Written by Professor Martin Raw from King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry and colleagues from the Health Education Authority and St George's Hospital in London, the evidence based guidelines attempt to combat the annual cost to the NHS of treating smoking related diseases which runs to £1500 million in England alone.
The authors suggest that by adhering to the guidelines, including the utilisation of nicotine replacement therapy, doctors could encourage a further 75,000 people per year to quit smoking. They say that nicotine replacement therapy approximately doubles cessation rates and that gum, patch, nasal spray and inhilator alternatives are all as safe and as effective as each another.
Raw et al conclude that although the Smoking Cessation Guidelines have been commissioned for the healthcare system in England, they have direct relevance to other countries.
The Smoking Cessation Guidelines have been published in full in a supplement to the latest issue of Thorax (December 1998, volume 53, supplement 5), published by the BMJ Publishing Group.
Contact:
Dean Mahoney, Press Office, Health Education Authority, Trevelyan House, London