Smoking is one of the high-risk influences on human beings. According to World Health Organization (2013), 6 millions of smokers who killed by tobacco each year in the worldwide, and more than five million adults dead by smoking-related causes. A brief statistics shows that causing approximately 36% of deaths from lung diseases, 28% of deaths from cancers and 14% of deaths from heart diseases (Action on Smoking and Health, 2013). Meanwhile, it is a fact that issues about smokers who have quit smoking, but who, within a short period, return to smoking again have aroused widespread concerns. Therefore, researchers are paying increasing attention to preventive approaches …show more content…
to reduce the rate of relapse. According to Hajek et al. (2013), the major measures of relapse prevention, specific intervention strategies of relapse prevention, include pharmacological interventions, behavioral and psychological treatments, and complementary interventions. Those interventions treat smoking issues in different way while they have similar effects and treatment mechanism on preventing smoking recovery. This essay is aim to compare the similarities of three relapse prevention strategies with brief evidences of their effectiveness; meantime, it will contrast the difference between those relapse prevention strategies thereby find the most effective approaches in different situations.
One of the most important approaches to prevent relapse is the pharmacological interventions which could replace cigarettes before or after quit smoking and increase the rate of quitting successfully. Pharmacotherapies, an effective method of relapsing, include “nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), bupropion and varenicline” (Cope, 2011). Compare with other three approaches, there are differences and similarities effected on people who want to stop smoking. One obvious difference is using in pregnancy and postpartum women. Cope suggests that NRT is able to use in pregnancy women while bupropion and varenicline must not to use during pregnancy or/and lactation. In addition, another slight difference is side-effects of medicines. For example, people with renal lesion have to decrease bupropion’s dose, whereas, people who have both kidney and liver damage should be reduce the dose of varenicline. In spite of these differences, in contrast, there are apparently similarities of pharmacological treatments. According to Cope, one similarities of bupropion and varenicline is that people not only over 18-year but also they should not associate with NRT or other medications of smoking abstinence. Another similarities is abnormal dreams which is the adverse reaction of NRT and bupropion. All in all, NRT is able to use for women with pregnant and lactation; bupropion has more side effect to renal function while varenicline make more side effects on kidney and liver.
In addition, behavioural and psychological treatments play an essential role in helping smokers to stop smoking. In some cases, however, both interventions could combined with each other with mutual support simultaneously because they are alike in some measures. These measures involve social support (proactive or reactive telephone support), face-to-face contact, and writing tasks (Hajek et al., 2013). For example, telephone counselling is used to as instead of face-to-face intervention for hospital inpatients and pregnant and postpartum women in long-term smoking cessation programmes. It is one of the best way to improve the awareness of relapse, at the same time, follow up the consequences of these interventions. Associate with behavioural and psychological interventions could increase the effectiveness of smoking relapse. Therefore, combing behavioural interventions with psychological treatments apparently rises the rate of quitting in the short or long treatments.
Despite these similar treatments, both behavioural and psychological interventions differ greatly in different areas.
Aversion therapy, a psychological treatment, is different from behavioural approach, which is to use electric shock treatments or other unpleasant stimulation to make people feel negative experience of smoking. This is supposed to assist people from smoking again. For example, according to Lowe (cited in Hajek, 2011) reported that covert sensitization or symbolic aversion causes negative aversive consequences of smoking, include nausea and vomiting, and the relief following putting out the cigarette. Additionally, exercise, a specific behavioural therapy of smoking cessation, is used to help “people give up smoking by moderating nicotine withdrawal and cravings, and by helping to manage” (Ussher, Taylor, & Faulkner, 2012). Taking regular exercise could may aid people avoid to return to smoking in long-term treatment. According to Ussher et al. (2012), “the exercise component more than doubled the likelihood of not smoking after 12 months”. Compare with aversion therapy and exercise, they have significant and specific effect on smokers who want to stop smoking, however, in some cases, it is possible that these interventions should combined with other smoking cessation
treatments.
Indeed, combined social support with people’s behaviour monitor to help people quit smoking is a normal and useful way which is adapted by many smokers and families; in contrast, although psychological treatment, which works by stimulation what make people feel negative experience of smoking, is effective, it has less users as its side effect to human health. However, it is broadly used to combine both together to reduce relapse.
References
Action on Smoking and Health, (2013) Facts at a Glance: Smoking Statistics: Illness and death. Retrieved from http://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_107.pdf
Cope, L. (2011). Smoking cessation: Use of pharmacotherapy in smoking cessation. Nursing Times, 107(44), 18-22. Retrieved from http://ovidsp.tx.ovid.com.ezproxy1.acu.edu.au/sp-3.12.0b/ovidweb.cgi?WebLinkFrameset=1&S=LBGKFPLNGODDJJPCNCMKFFIBEMFLAA00&returnUrl=ovidweb.cgi%3f%26Full%2bText%3dL%257cS.sh.22.23%257c0%257c00006203-201111080-00006%26S%3dLBGKFPLNGODDJJPCNCMKFFIBEMFLAA00&directlink=http%3a%2f%2fgraphics.tx.ovid.com%2fovftpdfs%2fFPDDNCIBFFPCGO00%2ffs046%2fovft%2flive%2fgv023%2f00006203%2f00006203-201111080-00006.pdf&filename=Use+of+pharmacotherapy+in+smoking+cessation.&pdf_key=FPDDNCIBFFPCGO00&pdf_index=/fs046/ovft/live/gv023/00006203/00006203-201111080-00006
Hajek, P., Stead, L.F., West, R., Jarvis, M., Hartmann-Boyce, J., & Lancaster, T. (2013). Relapse prevention interventions for smoking cessation (review). The Cochrane Collaboration. The Cochrane Library. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD003999.pub4/pdf
Hajek, P., (2011). Aversive smoking for smoking cessation (Review). The Cochrane Collaboration. The Cochrane Library. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD000546.pub2/pdf
Jime´nez-Ruiz,C.A., (2008). Psychological and behavioural interventions for smoking cessation. European Respiratory Monograph 42, 61-73. Madrid: Institute of Public Health. Retrieved from
Ussher, M. H., Taylor, A., & Faulkner, G., (2012). Exercise interventions for smoking cessation (Review). The Cochrane Collaboration. The Cochrane Library. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD002295.pub4/pdf
World Health Organization, (2013). Fact sheet: Tobacco. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs339/en/