National smoking cessation services at risk

doi:10.1136/bmj.323.7322.1140

BMJ 2001;323:1140-1141 ( 17 November )

Editorials

National smoking cessation services at risk

They are effective and cost effective and must be made permanent

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Twenty two years ago Russell and his colleagues showed the effectiveness of brief advice from doctors in persuading smokersto stop,¹ but only in the past few years has treatment fordependent smokers finally been taken seriously. Treatment serviceshave been established throughout the NHS and are an integral partof the government's plans to reduce deaths from coronary heartdisease and cancer.² Smokers are now offered behavioural supportto stop plus NHS prescriptions of nicotine replacement therapyor bupropion, treatments shown to be effective by a huge bodyof research and based on national clinical guidelines.³ Theseservices have achieved impressive throughput and success rates,but they are now under threat because of the government's failureto confirm their futurefunding.

In England between April 2000 and March 2001 about 127 000 smokers set a quit date and 48% of these stopped at one month.This has been achieved by just over . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Effectiveness of smoking cessation initiatives: Martin J Jarvis, Doreen McIntyre, Clive Bates, and Jonathan Foulds
BMJ 2002 324: 608. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

Wiltshire, S., Bancroft, A., Parry, O., Amos, A. (2003). 'I came back here and started smoking again': perceptions and experiences of quitting among disadvantaged smokers. Health Educ Res 18: 292-303 [Abstract] [Full text]
Jarvis, M. J, McIntyre, D., Bates, C., Foulds, J. (2002). Effectiveness of smoking cessation initiatives. BMJ 324: 608-608 [Full text]

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