Heart
Disease Patients Need Long-term Support to Quit Smoking
For
your own good and the good of those around you, please quit
smoking.
How
many times have you heard or read that?
Psychosocial
interventions - like counseling, telephone support and self-help
materials - can assist heart disease patients who are trying
to give up cigarettes. But don't think intervention is a one-shot
deal. Nicotine is extremely addictive. Successful treatments
to cease smoking last a month or more.
A
recent review gathered evidence from 16 randomized controlled
studies of psychosocial quit-smoking interventions for patients
with coronary heart disease. Many of the study participants
had experienced a heart attack or an invasive treatment such
as bypass surgery or angioplasty.
Brief
interventions without some follow-up contact were not effective.
The
review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library,
a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international
organization that evaluates medical research.
Coronary
heart disease - the No. 1 cause of death in the United States
- results from a buildup of plaque within the walls of the
arteries that supply the heart muscle with oxygen and nutrients.
Smokers have an increased risk for heart disease, and people
with heart disease who smoke have an increased risk for heart
attack and death.
The
review analyzed the effectiveness of different psychosocial
quitting aids. The likelihood that a smoker with heart disease
would remain abstinent after six to 12 months was similar
for behavioral counseling, phone support and self-help (information
booklets, audio- or videotapes) interventions.
The
biggest lesson of the review is that you can't rely on a heart
attack to scare everyone into quitting, the authors report.
There
is a new name for them "battle-hardened smokers."
