Personalized minimal treatment of smoking addiction. Results of a multicenter study. Study Group of the Treatment of Tobacco Addiction. Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a minimal-intervention smoking cessation program tailored to meet the needs of patients in a pneumology practice. Six-months open study was designed, multicenter, involving four pneumology practices in different Spanish cities. Smokers with or without respiratory disease who consulted a pneumologist were included. Patients were grouped according to their phase in the self-change process toward smoking cessation: precontemplation or contemplation. The level of physical dependence on nicotine was assessed using a revised version of the Fagerström test. CO in exhaled air was also measured. Precontemplators were advised to quit smoking and given a booklet about smoking addiction. Contemplators were additionally given a practical guide to quitting. Advice on quitting was different for the two different phases. Smokers were reexamined twice: 8 weeks and 6 months later. We evaluated the success of the physician's intervention of encouragement to abstain (a level of CO in exhaled air [10 ppm was required]) and we recorded change of phase in the cessation process. Three hundred thirteen subjects were enrolled: 222 men (70.9%) and 91 women (29.1%). After 6 months, 40 (43%) of the precontemplators had changed phase and 21 of them (23%) had stopped smoking; 61 (28%) of the 221 contemplators had changed phase and 20 of them (9%) had quit smoking. Personalized minimal intervention in subjects with or without disease gives good results in terms of success in quitting as well as progress toward cessation.