Snap Decision to Quit Smoking Called Effective
1/27/2006
Some smokers may need a "quit plan" to stop smoking, but researchers say that those who spontaneously decide to quit may have more success, Reuters reported Jan. 26.
"Contrary to what experts had previously believed, the idea that you have to plan your quit attempts ahead of time isn't necessarily true," said researcher Robert West of University College London, who along with colleague Taj Sohal queried 1,900 smokers and former smokers about their attempts to quit.
West and Sohal found that about half of all quit attempts were spontaneous, and that those who chose to quit on the spot were 50-60 percent more likely to succeed than those who planned their attempt in advance.
The researchers stressed that the findings should not be used to discourage quit plans, but rather reinforce the importance of the smoker being in the right frame of mind and motivated when they decide to quit.
The study was published in the January 2006 issue of the British Medical Journal.
This article is online at http://www.jointogether.org/y/0,2521,578951,00.html
Normally when I see a news headline with "New Study" attached to a smoking cessation report I cringe. Somehow most studies reported are some sort of laboratory study, where conclusions are being drawn from rodents or people in experimental settings. Somehow lab settings seem to always show what we teach here at Freedom is wrong.
Every now and then though a different kind of study is released. Not research done in a lab where the researchers control the variables--but rather real world surveys where researchers are simply trying to find out what has worked for people in real world settings.
Those kind of studies are a whole lot more credible to me, and I believe to be a whole lot more replicable by any average person trying to see if the the reports hold true to their own experiences and to the experiences of those around them. These kind of studies often result in the the smoking cessation experts of the world having to tap dance around the new findings.
Here is a comment I put up earlier today
regarding real world studies involving NRT's. I am going to change a few words in that commentary, replacing the phrase "NRT" with a variation of the phrase "plan your quit" or "planned their quit." I think all who read here will realize that the same concepts apply:
I really do encourage all people to take this survey, talking to long-term ex-smokers in their real world. People who you knew when they were smokers, who you knew when they were quitting and who you still know as being successful long-term ex-smokers. The more people you talk to the more obvious it will become how people quit smoking and how people stay off of smoking. Again, people quit smoking by simply quitting smoking and people stay off of smoking by simply knowing that to stay smoke free that they must never take another puff! Again, go talk to as many long-term successful ex-smokers (people off all forms of nicotine for at least a year or longer) in your real world that you can find and find out how they quit. I don't believe that there is a single professional smoking cessation "plan your quit" advocate who will suggest to their patients that they take a similar survey. For if they did their credibility would be called into question almost immediately when the patient starting seeing the results of their real life survey. They will end up having to spend quite a bit of time trying to explain away the discrepancy, using excuses like the people who "Planned their quit" didn't do it right or didn't "plan" long enough or were more addicted smokers. We don't need to spend time trying to explain away the results of the surveys that people will do in there real world settings. All we have to say is the results make it more and more obvious that the way to quit smoking and to stay successfully free is no more complicated than just making and sticking to a personal commitment to never take another puff. Joel | | | |
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