Smoking cessation techniques.

A key responsibility for all health care professionals is to advise patients to quit smoking, which means being knowledgeable about smoking cessation programs and methods. This article considers both assisted and self-help methods of smoking cessation and their application to female smokers. The most effective assisted programs employ multiple interventions, primarily behavioral, but also pharmacologic, in the form of nicotine replacement. Smoking cessation products have not generally proven effective with the exception of nicotine polacrilex gum and the transdermal nicotine patch. Use of nicotine replacement, especially the patch, in smokers who are pregnant or nursing is controversial. In addition to pregnant women, those with young children and those of color and low socioeconomic status represent important high-risk target populations. Very little work has been done with female adolescents.