Try, Try, Try Again—Smoking Cessation Clinics and Their Role in the Cessation Journey

Commentary

Stepankova and colleagues demonstrate that the second round of treatment for smoking cessation can be as effective as the first round. It is important to recognize that, in a clinical context, most smokers will have already made multiple quit attempts and have learned the nature of their addiction. However, learning that quitting can be difficult can act as increased motivation to try to quit again. Clinicians should be willing to treat cessation as a long- term progress and not fear repeated clinical interventions.

This important paper by Stepankova et al. [1] demonstrates that the second round of treatment for smoking cessation can be as effective as the first round. Their work suggests that clinicians should be emboldened to continue providing long-term care.

Only a small proportion of smokers seek treatment in specialized smoking cessation programs. While this group is comprised of individuals with mixed levels of dependence, smoking patterns and other characteristics, smokers seeking help differ substantially from smokers in general population [2]. Those who have been successful at quitting unassisted or without specialized assistance would not seek help at smoking cessation programs [2]. Thus, the subpopulation of smokers seeking help in smoking cessation programs may include larger numbers of smokers who unsuccessfully tried to quit before admission and are likely to possess features associated with smoking cessation failure in the past and, theoretically, in the future.