The study conducted at School of Public Health, University of Sydney, found that techniques like ‘cold turkey’-- giving up at once, or dropping the number of cigarettes slowly to a complete halt on consumption have proved to be beneficial than any assistance from nicotine-replacement therapies, or the general practitioner.
Lead researchers Dr. Simon Chapman and Dr. Ross MacKenzie said, “Governments are also guilty of ‘medicalisation of smoking cessation’ and making giving up sound harder than it actually is.”
Details of the study
The research team assessed 511 studies published in 2007 and 2008, and found that smokers admitted that quitting was easier than they had actually anticipated.
The research team found that two-thirds to three-quarters of ex-smokers quit the habit unaided.
The team also examined the company-sponsored studies, and randomly managed tests on nicotine-replacement therapy.
The results showed that 51 percent of such funded trials involving therapies like nicotine patches or gums were successful in helping the smoker refrain from smoking, whereas only 22 percent of non-industry tests succeeded.
On the contrary, the researchers revealed that the former percentage was high as the subjects of these clinical trials often get their drugs free of cost, and they are frequently followed up with reminders.
Therefore, it was established that earnest efforts on quitting the habit need not require specialized help or alternative remedies.
“Health authorities should emphasize the positive message that the most successful method used by most ex-smokers is unaided cessation,” said Chapman.
Aided cessation and ‘hardening hypothesis’
Researchers supported another aspect of the study-- assisted cessation with ‘hardening hypothesis’. It meant that assisting the present smokers of the area where many have already quit the habit, as the remaining would only be ‘hard-core’ smokers who cannot quit without support.
The researchers established that the ones, who have already quit smoking, were either less reliant on nicotine or were more provoked to quit.
They revealed 2006-2007 data on smoking in the United States that shows a noteworthy descend in the average number of cigarettes smoked daily in the states with fewer smokers.
They take this as ‘compelling evidence against the hardening hypothesis’, or a contrary pattern would be seen if only hard-core smokers were left.
Details of the study appear in PLoS Medicine.
Post new comment