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Self‐administered treatment for smoking cessation
Author(s) -
Curry Susan J.,
Ludman Evette J.,
McClure Jennifer
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.10131
Subject(s) - smoking cessation , psychology , clinical psychology , psychotherapist , psychiatry , medicine , pathology
Self‐administered treatment for smoking cessation has the potential to reach a broad spectrum of the population of smokers. This article focuses on self‐administration of behavioral and pharmacological treatments for smoking cessation. Evidence for the effectiveness of written manuals to self‐administer behavioral treatment is mixed. There is no evidence that self‐help manuals alone are effective. However, they do increase quit rates when combined with personalized adjuncts such as written feedback and outreach telephone counseling. Efficacy trials of first‐line pharmacotherapies (nicotine gum, nicotine patch, and bupropion) result in doubling of cessation rates compared to placebo. It is difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of pharmacotherapies when self‐administered under real‐world conditions. The general consensus is that they improve quit rates, although poor compliance and early discontinuation reduce their effectiveness. Areas for further research include randomized trials of the use of new technologies (e.g., hand‐held computers and the Internet) to disseminate self‐administered treatments as well as improved surveillance of the use of self‐administered treatment in population‐based health surveys. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 59: 305–319, 2003.