Smoking Cessation Programs

[Connie B]

Hey, has anyone done a GOOGLE SEARCH on

Smoking Cessation Programs?

I just did and 2,180,000 sites came up. WOW,

I would say, if ANYONE is looking for help either trying to quit smoking or wanting to get involved with Smoking Cessation Programs, I sure would suggest doing a GOOGLE and have at it!

Just thought I would share that with everyone.

[gpawelski]

Since a substantial number of patients presenting with lung cancer either smoked in the recent past or continue to do so, it is important to make sure that the patient stops smoking as soon as possible to improve their treatment outcome. the emphasis should be on improvement of treatment outcome and future health improvement.

There are guidelines regarding smoking cessation techniques that have resulted from reviews of the world's literature and are very well accepted throughout the medical and psychological fields. However, the biggest problem remains in having healthcare providers implement them routinely. Most have emphasized the role of the primary healthcare provider in providing smoking cessaton advice to patients, whereas the specialists, such as medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, thoracic surgeons or pulmonary care specialists should be dealing with the health problems resulting from the smoking as the patient faces imminent interventions such as radiation therapy, chemotherapy or surgery.

Since ongoing smoking may significantly affect the outcome of subsequent surgery or therapy and negatively impact long-term survival, it is now the specialists' turn to provide the urgent smoking cessation treatment. Besides providing evaluation and management services, making referrels for diagnostic testing, radiation therapy, surgery and other procedures as necessary, and offer any other support needed to reduce patient morbidity and extend patient survival, I certainly hope they add smoking cessation guidance and support.

No pharmaceutical trial ever followed whether patients smoked during their clinical trials, despite dosing themselves daily with cigarettes with thousands of chemicals in them. The addition of nicotine inhibits the ability of a chemo drug (like etoposide) to induce apoptosis by 61%. If a drug like nicotine, which occurs in the highest concentration of any drug in a cigarette, inhibits the ability of a major chemotherapy drug by 61%, a medical oncologist should care if it was being ingested during treatment.

www.treatobacco.net is an evidence-based site containing information in 11 languages on tobacco dependence treatment relative to efficacy, safety, demographics and health effects, health economics, and policy.

www.cdc.gov/tobacco/ is a site to let you know everything you wanted to know about tobacco at the CDC.

www.guideline.gov/summary/summary.aspx? ... 8&nbr=2184 is the National Guideline Clearinghouse web site for smoking cessaton.

Since a substantial number of patients presenting to a cardiothoracic surgery clinic either smoked in the recent past or continue to do so, it is important to make sure that patients stop smoking as soon as possible to improve their treatment outcome. The emphasis should be on improvement of treatment outcome and future health improvement. Reinforcing the guilt feelings the patient may already have is counterproductive, and is a significant concern of patient and patient advocacy groups at the present time.

www.ctsnet.org/sections/clinicalresourc ... ch-25.html

[smokegetsinyoureyes]

This should be on a sticky for future reference.

[gpawelski]

According to an article by Merrill Goozner at The Fiscal Times, Medicare leveled a pre-emptive strike against smoking and agreed to pay for counseling for senior smokers who are not yet sick. The new smoking cessation program for seniors might seem a tad late. People usually smoke for decades before they get cancer, emphysema, heart disease and other smoking-related disorders - just in time for Medicare to pick up the tab. But the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) decision memo noted that even older smokers who quit can see fairly quick payback in terms of reduced illness.

Smoking costs the U.S. economy $97 billion annually in lost productivity, in addition to the $96 billion a year in direct health care costs, according to CMS. Counseling coupled with smoking prevention drugs and devices are among the most cost-effective interventions in the disease prevention arsenal.

A Rand Corporation analysis of a Medicare demonstration projection estimated the total health care cost savings for the agency exceeded payments for the smoking cessation program within five years. “The cost of these programs may be offset by reductions in medical expenses even when targeting older smokers,” the researchers concluded.

CMS began paying for counseling for seniors already sick with smoking-related illnesses in 2005. It will now pay for four private counseling sessions during two attempts a year for people trying to quit. “The practitioner and patient have the flexibility to choose between intermediate (more than three minutes) or intensive (more than ten minutes) cession counseling sessions for each attempt,” the agency ruled.

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Issues/He ... Costs.aspx