The efficacy of computer-tailored smoking cessation material as a supplement to nicotine polacrilex gum therapy.

Abstract

PHYSICIANS ARE often called upon to provide smoking cessation treatment for their patients and are doing so in ever-greater numbers.¹ The availability of medications for smoking cessation (nicotine replacement therapy [NRT]¹ and, more recently, bupropion hydrochloride^2,3) has provided physicians with pharmacological tools to assist their smoking patients who want to quit. These medications are seeing increasing utilization, with the expectation that this will result in substantial public health benefits.⁴ However, some patients may need behavioral as well as pharmacological treatment, and many physicians do not have the time or the specific skills to provide detailed behavioral counseling on how patients should quit smoking. If physician intervention in smoking cessation is to have maximal public health impact, a method of delivering behavioral intervention on a mass scale is needed.