BMJ  2003;327:811 (4 October), doi:10.1136/bmj.327.7418.811-b

Letter

Smoke free hospitals

Withdrawal from cigarettes should not be confused with withdrawal from nicotine

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

EDITOR—As we showed in our editorial, there are many sound clinical reasons for stopping smoking, not least that it improves the chances of recovery (which is surely the aim of being in hospital). However, some responses to our editorial seem to confuse withdrawal from cigarettes with withdrawal from nicotine.1

For those unable to do without nicotine, replacement therapy will satisfy their craving while they are in hospital (as your correspondents note) while reducing the risk of fire or pollution of the environment. Most importantly, it will allow it to be administered in a controlled manner that takes account of its physiological effects on those whose body systems may already be compromised. In response to Head, it is unethical to enable patients who are seriously ill to self administer a potent drug, with no idea of how much they are taking or how it might interact with the other . . . [Full text of this article]

Martin McKee, professor of European public health, Anna Gilmore, research fellow

European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London WC1E 7HT

Tom Novotny, director, international programmes

UCSF School of Medicine, 74 New Montgomery Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Smoke free hospitals: Challenges need to be faced
William McKee, Michael McBride, Deirdre O'Brien, Antony Stevens, and Christine Burns
BMJ 2003 327: 104. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ