Intervention Quit rate after 6 months
Brief advice from a health care professional 2-3%
Advice and NRT¹ / Zyban² 6%
Advice, NRT / Zyban plus ongoing support 8- 25%
¹NRT - Nicotine Replacement Treatment
²Zyban – Bupropion Hydrochloride
(Annual Report 2001, Nottingham Health Authority)
It can be clearly seen that the success rate is dramatically improved by giving someone advice and long term support. In fact ongoing support appears to be 4 times more effective than nicotine replacement therapy.
Smokers are not all the same
The highest predictor of success in giving up smoking is the number of cigarettes a day a person smokes and the time to the first cigarette of the day (West, 2004). This is tabulated below:
Time to First Cigarette Effect on Outcome
Within 5 mins Huge negative effect
6 to 30 mins Large negative effect
31+ mins Unimportant
It seems to me that in light of the above all smokers need to have treatments customised to their smoking habits.
How good is hypnosis in Stopping Smoking ?
There are two major studies that show hypnosis to be the most effective in helping people stop smoking however the studies are not accepted by medical professionals as indicating the efficacy of hypnotherapy as a treatment. Tang and Law’s (1995) paper though widely used to herald the superiority of hypnosis in smoking cessation specifically states that “the effect of hypnosis is unproved” because “no trials used bio chemical markers”. The meta-analysis (whilst mathematically elegant) of Viswesvaran and Schmidt has a similar problem. The scientific standard for efficacy is the use of bio chemical markers to evidence that the subjects are no longer smoking after a defined time period. The problem for hypnotherapy is simple – hypnotherapists are in business to stop you smoking, not to do clinical research trials. Success of a treatment is heavily influenced by the therapist. Confident therapists will have better success than a less confident one using the same treatment.
How do you select a good hypnotherapist?
· Select a therapist who is a member of a professional body – a register of such persons can be found at http://www.hypnotherapyregulation.co.uk/home/.
· Choose a therapist who will provide you with ongoing support
· When you make your first enquiries ask how the treatment will be tailored to your individual needs – a competent therapist should ask you questions about your smoking habits.
· Choose a confident therapist – many therapists demonstrate their confidence by offering a single fee with free aftercare. Hypnotherapists who work full time in their profession are also more likely to be confident in their abilities.
References
Director of Public Health. “Action on heart disease”. 2001, Nottingham NHS health Authority.
Law M, Ling Tang J. An analysis of the effectiveness of interventions intended to help people stop smoking. Arch Intern Med 1995;155:1933-1941.
Viswesvaran, C. I. & Schmidt, F. L. (1992). A Meta-Analytic Comparison of the
Effectiveness of Smoking Cessation Methods. Journal of Applied Psvcholoqy. 77 (4): 554-561. August 1992.
West, R. “ABC of smoking cessation, Assessment of Dependence and Motivation to Stop Smoking”, British Medical Journal, 2004, 328; 338-9
