Among selleck inhibitor those who did attend the first clinic visit, our dropout rates prior to completion tended to be higher than other ST trials (Dale et al., 2007; Ebbert et al., 2007, 2011; Ebbert, Severson, Croghan, Danaher, & Schroeder, 2009; Fagerstr?m et al., 2010; Wallstrom, Bolinder, Hasseus, & Hirsch, 2010). The difference may be due to some of these trials having more frequent clinic visits (Ebbert et al., 2007), which may increase retention, or increased retention due to more subjects having successfully quit (i.e., higher abstinence rates; Ebbert et al., 2009, 2011; Wallstrom et al., 2010) or both (Dale et al., 2007; Fagerstr?m et al., 2010). Nonetheless, these results show that once in the study, one approach is not superior over another approach in retaining ST users in the treatment program.
In summary, among ST users, immediate cessation with an established quit date showed greater cessation success than a gradual reduction approach among those who do not have a quit plan but are motivated to quit. Nevertheless, future studies should consider ST users who are unmotivated to quit to determine if recommendations to reduce would engage them in treatment. Funding This work was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health (R01DA14404) and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health (T32HL007741). Declaration of Interests Dorothy Hatsukami had received a grant from Nabi Biopharmaceutical to conduct a clinical trial on the nicotine vaccine for smoking cessation.
Acknowledgments The authors would like to thank Herb Severson for his valuable input on the design of the study.
Cigarette smoking continues to pose a major public health threat in the United States and abroad. Smoking has been related to significantly increased risk for a number of chronic and deadly illnesses, including cardiovascular disease and cancer (American Cancer Society, 2009). Despite the clear negative health consequences of smoking, smoking cessation success remains elusive for many (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). A widely touted explanation for difficulty in quitting smoking is the ubiquitous presence of smoking-related cues in the environment that trigger strong difficult-to-resist cravings to smoke (Tiffany, 1990). A large body of literature has demonstrated that these ��cue-induced cravings�� can be reliably modeled in the laboratory.
In one review (Carter & Tiffany, 1999), the authors Dacomitinib conclude that exposure to smoking cues (e.g., handling a cigarette without smoking it) under controlled laboratory conditions consistently gives rise to strong self-reported craving responses. Less well established, however, is whether these cue-induced cravings are related to smoking cessation outcomes. Indeed, an early review by Niaura et al.