CONFERENCE PROCEEDING
Can You Do Without Risk Reduction In The Fight Against Smoking?
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1
Mediterranean Observatory on Harm Reduction, Turin, Italy
2
Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Turin, Italy
3
Independent Researcher, Rome, Italy
Publication date: 2023-04-25
Corresponding author
Fabio Beatrice
Mediterranean Observatory on Harm Reduction, Turin, Italy
Tob. Prev. Cessation 2023;9(Supplement):A145
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Tobacco smoking cessation is a complicated objective since smokers are difficult to reach and most cessation attempts fail even when following the instructions from the guidelines . The reduction of risk is a clinical strategy widely used in drug addiction , but still faces obstacles in nicotine addiction
In the face of this failure and of the thousands of resulting deaths, the UK Health Ministry has introduced e-cigarette smoking as a public health measure in support of smokers who are unable to quit. The choice of digital device smoking by a smoker represents a change and a greater care being given to one’s own health. If supported with objectivity and transparency in the area of a doctor-patient relationship based on trust, in addition to strengthening a therapeutic “partnership”, it could broaden the horizon to further progress towards the goal of quitting which remains the main objective.
Most recently, a Cochrane review featuring a stringent selection of 78 completed studies with 22,052 participants, of which 40 were randomized trials, concluded that there is high-certainty evidence that nicotine-enhanced e-cigarettes increase quit rates compared to dispensed nicotine. Pharmacological while there is definite evidence of moderate certainty that the use of nicotine-free e-cigarettes still increases quit rates. The size of the measured effect still remains to be clarified. The data also demonstrate that in the two-year follow-up (the longest period measured) the consumption of e-cigarettes turned out to be substantially free of adverse events and there was no evidence of serious harm from nicotine taken via electronic device
Quitting smoking is as fundamental a goal as not starting to smoke. But if you smoke and you can't stop, you need to clearly indicate a policy to help heavy smokers because not taking action leads to a chronicisation of mortality. It's time to get out of useless controversies, demagogic positions or to give credit to experimental works that often propose models that are very distant from clinical reality.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
The authors have no conflicting interests to declare.