Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Nicotine dependence: It's worse than you think
It's the best of times and worst of times for ending tobacco dependence, according to David Sachs, ACP Member, of the Palo Alto Center for Pulmonary Disease Prevention.
The best, because there are more tools than ever to help patients quit.
The worst, because most physicians have no idea how to treat patients effectively.
In part, that's because doctors don't know that nearly 75% of people seeking tobacco-dependent treatment are categorized as "highly" dependent-- meaning standard, OTC therapies won't work on them, Dr. Sachs said during a Chest 2008 press conference about a new study he authored. In the study, he and his colleagues analyzed pretreatment dependence severity from 1989-2006 and found severity increased 12% during that time, with those classified as "highly dependent" increasing 32%.
Doctors should measure dependence in their patients trying to quit. For treatment, they may need to increase drug doses and duration of use, try different drug combinations, and put more stress on minimizing withdrawal symptoms.
Dr. Sachs didn't have a pat answer for why dependence has increased in the last 15 years, so moderator Mark Rosen, FACP, speculated: "Can we attribute any of this (increase in dependence) to the stress of having Bush in the White House for the last eight years?"
Labels: Chest conference, smoking cessation
posted by Jessica Berthold at
11:36 AM
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Previous Posts
- Drugs to keep an eye on
- New uses for old drugs
- Good news, bad news
- The patient who ruins your day
- Conference News: Chest 2008
- Medical News of the Obvious
- Very different conferences
- Drugs, drugs, and...tai chi?
- Physicians using antibiotics, sedatives as placebo...
- Good Samaritans help (when it's needed)
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American Journal of Medicine
Also known as the Green Journal, the American Journal of Medicine publishes original clinical articles of interest to physicians in internal medicine and its subspecialities, both in academia and community-based practice.
Clinical Correlations
A collaborative medical blog started by Neil Shapiro, ACP Member, associate program director at New York University Medical Center's internal medicine residency program. Faculty, residents and students contribute case studies, mystery quizzes, news, commentary and more.
db's Medical Rants
Robert M. Centor, FACP, contributes short essays contemplating medicine and the health care system.
Everything Health
EverythingHealth is designed to address the rapid changes in science, medicine, health and healing in the 21st Century.
Getting Better with Dr. Val
Getting Better is the continuation of Dr. Val Jones' previous blog at Revolution Health. It is devoted to helping people understand health issues from a balanced, scientifically sound perspective.
HealthHombre
A roundup of health policy news drawn from a database of hundreds of Web sites.
Interact MD
Michael Benjamin, ACP member, doesn't accept industry money so he can create an independent, clinician-reviewed space on the Internet for physicians to report and comment on the medical news of the day.
Kevin, MD
The alter ego of Kevin Pho, ACP Member, is the closest thing to royalty in the medical blog world.
LSUHSC-S Medical Library Evidence Alert
Major guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and/or major reviews by national and international organizations.
PLoS Blog
The Public Library of Science's open access materials include a blog.
White Coat Rants
One of the most popular anonymous blogs written by a doctor.
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