Talk:Smoking cessation

Talk 1

What smoking cessation method has achieved the highest quit rate after six months? (Question added by an anonymous contributor a few months ago, still unanswered). <KF> 00:07, Nov 9, 2004 (UTC)

If you smoke you should try to stop. This will improve your health now and in the future. Get some help. Quitting without support is extremely hard.

whoa - agree or not, this statement is _highly_ POV. --Random|[[User talk:Random832|832]] 17:19, 2005 Mar 30 (UTC)

Five Day Plan

See http://en.wikipedia.org/enwiki/w/index.php?title=Five-Day_Plan&oldid=12731851

Talk 2

A friend I used to work with used this method to stop smoking, he placed a pack of cigarettes in a glass jar full of water and screwed the jar shut. Whenever he craved a cigarette he would open the jar and sniff, and said that the smell of the fetid cigarette water was enough to turn his stomach and take away his craving.

No Smoking logo caption

"Get used to it..." !? Such a caption not only removes from the objectivity of this page but also is highly antagonistic to smokers - some who have come to this page to get a factual account of the benefits of quitting. 220.237.56.103 06:15, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Agreed, it's hardly encyclopedic. I've changed the caption. Haddock420 14:47, 15 November 2006 (UTC)

benefits

what are the benefits of smoking cessation?

- Reduced risk on heart disease, lung cancer, etc... A normalisation of blood pressure and blood oxygen content. There are also social/financial benefits as well....220.237.56.103 14:38, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Statistics

The claim that no method has ever achieved a success rate of greater than 25% really needs a citation. Even if it gets one, the statistic is misleading, as some methods may take longer than 6 months to work. For example, Allen Carr's EasyWay method claims a 90% success rate at their clinics because anyone who fails can go back for free until he is successful. Surely there are records of success rates of individual methods and aids that we could use in this section.Atripodi 11:59, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Allan Carr - Easy way

Allan Carr “Easy way” is a private business enterprise in the field of tobacco cessation. This article smells of advertisement!

Smells of advertisement? There are two mentions of the book, one picture, and one as an example of a self-help book. Pretty sparse for what appears to have the highest success rate of any method. If not for that little picture of Carr's book in the corner, I never would have quite smoking, so I think we should have no qualms about pointing out which methods work better than others. This article has the potential to really help people make an informed choice about the smartest and easiest way to quit (and it can be easy). Or it could be a neutral, don't step on anyone's toes-type article that pretends AMA-approved sugar pills like the patch are as effective as other methods that happen to be provided by "private business". If we disallow ourselves to point out when private business is more effective than government alternatives, then we have a systemic bias that will keep people from quitting smoking. Carr's method works. The AMA and FDA fail. Let's point out the facts. Atripodi 06:30, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

The patch is far from a "sugar pill." It's a tool to help aid in quitting, not a cure.

From the American Cancer Society's Guide to Quitting Smoking:

" There are some programs to watch out for as well. Not all programs are ethical. You should be concerned about programs that do the following:

   * Promise instant, easy success with no effort on your part."

http://www.cancer.org/docroot/PED/content/PED_10_13X_Guide_for_Quitting_Smoking.asp?sitearea=PED

The defense above "The AMA and FDA fail" was clearly written by someone with an financial interest in Carr's program. "The AMA and FDA fail"? How so? "AMA-approved sugar pills?" How biased is this language? Do you think anyone's going to be taken by it?

Stop Smoking With QuitKey

Have any of you heard of QuitKey by LifeSign? QuitKey is a stop smoking program that fits in the palm of your hand or on a keychain and breaks your habitual smoking behaviors.

Alternative Techniques - Nicotine Half-life

It was stated in the text, "Nicotine has a half life of around two hours, so most smokers detox fairly effectively each night when they sleep. Hence the need to smoke so soon after waking that is seen in dependent smokers. Detoxification is probably an irrelevance in this field."

This is misleading, in its context, because the active metabolites of nicotine also have half-lives. Receptor downgrade from the presence of nicotine and upgrade after cessation also must be considered. The difficulty in quitting is from the lack of "toxin," so cessation based on removing the poison quicker than normal is of little help in the grander scheme.

I waited a month or so for a retort regarding this wrong supposition (wrong because it's based on a misunderstanding of what role the half-life of nicotine has in "detoxification") and then deleted it.

The whole "detoxification" thing is based on a pseudo-scientific premise anyways (i.e. the poison actually causes cravings). It completely disregards the neurochemical readjustment phase that is the most difficult part of cessation; a phase in which nicotine and its active metabolites are not present.

Zyban question

In the article it says:

• (Zyban®, contraindicated in epilepsy, psychosis and diabetes)

I checked the wiki article for it and nothing is listed. There is no reference on this page, and the drug companies website doesn't say anything about this. Should it stay or go? 64.216.197.18 04:53, 16 June 2007 (UTC)

Images

The photo of the Nicoderm CQ patch clearly shows that it is on the left, not right arm. - Gilliam 00:33, 17 June 2007 (UTC)