The Rush Stop Smoking Program uses the latest behavioral techniques and supportive medications to help smokers quit their smoking habit and break their addiction to nicotine. The program is led by Albert Bellg, Ph.D., the clinical health psychologist from the Rush Heart Institute's Preventive Cardiology Program .
Studies show that nicotine is as addictive as cocaine.
Anyone is welcome in the Stop Smoking Program, but we're particularly interested in working with smokers who need to quit for medical reasons or people who've had a hard time quitting in the past. After a free individual introductory session that assesses a smoker's motivation and readiness to quit, Dr. Bellg works with patients to develop an appropriate quit plan. Dr. Bellg generally does not recommend nicotine replacement therapy to aid the quitting process. Our experience is that smokers do better going through nicotine withdrawal when their motivation is high, at the beginning of the program. Nicotine patches, gum or inhalers postpone withdrawal and create a period of high risk for smoking relapse, and also often result in prolonging withdrawal symptoms.