Behavioral interventions that facilitate smoking cessation, include assessment of the patient's readiness to change and using behavioral techniques to increase a patient's motivation for smoking cessation. In addition, the physician can assess the degree of nicotine dependence and offer pharmacological treatments alone or in combination. Smoking Cessation and Co-morbid Psychiatric Disorders. Quit rates in smokers with a history of depression are exceedingly low. It is especially important for physicians and patients to identify a history of depression before having the patient attempt smoking cessation.
Smoking cessation can increase the risk of depression.
Robert E. Feinstein, M.D. is Director of Residency Training and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College.