Continuing Education Studies indicate that physicians and other healthcare professionals can significantly reduce the prevalence of smoking in this country if they are involved in interventions with their patients. It has been clearly established that all forms of tobacco are addicting. Hundreds of studies have demonstrated the addictive nature of nicotine. The responsibility falls on healthcare providers to provide treatment to patients who are addicted to nicotine in the same way as patients who are addicted to alcohol or illegal drugs.
Cigarettes kill far more people each year than do alcohol or other drugs.
Clinical trials have demonstrated that physicians can help their patients stop smoking. If physicians deliver simple smoking cessation messages, the potential for a broad public health impact is great. The smoking cessation guidelines were created to assist healthcare workers in their attempts to convince smokers to quit. Clinicians should ask about and record the tobacco-use status of every patient. Clinician intervention, even as brief as 3 minutes a visit, is effective.