What is smoking cessation treatment?
Smoking cessation treatment is limited as there are few products available but they are very effective. We have nicotine replacement therapy: patches, tablets, tricyclic antidepressant drugs,…. All of them have a direct action on nicotine dependence. We start the treatment with a clinical history from which we can find out about the history and all the pathology apart from tobacco, and which is normally related, such as cardiovascular pathology, pulmonary pathology, etc… Once we have the clinical history, even with radiological, analytical and electro-cardiogram supports in the most complex cases, the treatment to follow is established. Treatment will not be less than 3 months and in few cases it is more than 6 months. Once we overcome the first days of this treatment, we adjust in periodic controls to the patient the dose that has to be followed and effectiveness of this treatment. Undoubtedly, as a support, we have to apply psychological treatment, which is very important in order to ensure that the patient becomes an ex-smoker.
What advice do you give to people so that the purpose is maintained over time?
Initially, when a patient comes to the clinic to try to quit smoking, the first thing is to be clear that he/she wants to quit smoking, it is very important because initially it will be a great effort for both the patient and the professional. The second premise is that he/she should go to a specialist trained in smoking cessation who is capable of achieving success through the different treatment mechanisms. And thirdly, the treatment must be comprehensive, that is to say, it cannot be a one-month treatment, but it has to be a treatment with different periodic visits of no less than 3 months up to a maximum of 6 months. Of course, after that, annual check-ups must be made and from the first year onwards we can start talking about an ex-smoker.
What are the short and long term advantages of quitting smoking?
In the short term we will gain freedom by getting rid of an obligation or a dependence we have related to nicotine, which is responsible for tobacco dependence. In the medium term we will gain dental hygiene, recovery of taste, recovery of smell and a considerable improvement in the color of our skin. In the medium term we can assure that we will have a better respiratory and cardiac function which will avoid cardiac pathology, myocardial infarction and vascular insufficiencies and at respiratory level we will avoid chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, known as COPD. And in the much longer term, we will avoid the appearance of tumors at different levels. It is clear that a person who has not smoked for 10 or 15 years has the same risk of any of the pathologies I have mentioned as a person who has not smoked all his life. And as a final colophon, we will be able to make our last years of life comfortable enough to be able to develop this last stage of our life without the pernicious addiction of smoking.