smoking cessation

(MedPage Today) -- Most smokers who have a stroke have not dropped the habit by one year after the event, which might be related to their intentions to quit before the stroke and the location of the stroke, researchers found.

(MedPage Today) -- Users of the smoking-cessation drug varenicline (Chantix) who had no previous cardiac history had a small but statistically significant increase in the risk of cardiovascular events, a meta-analysis of randomized trials showed.

(NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse) A new study uncovers a brain mechanism that could be targeted for new medications designed to help people quit smoking without gaining weight.

(International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer) Many longtime smokers quit spontaneously with little effort shortly before their lung cancer is diagnosed, leading some researchers to speculate that sudden cessation may be a symptom of lung cancer.

(Porter Novelli) A new study released today by the American Lung Association, and conducted by researchers at Penn State University, finds that helping smokers quit not only saves lives but also offers favorable economic benefits to states.

The study, titled Smoking Cessation: the Economic Benefits, provides a nationwide cost-benefit analysis that compares the costs to society of smoking with the economic benefits of states providing cessation (quit-smoking) coverage.

As a physician, not being a big fan of cigarette smoking, I would have found little to criticize had anyone showed me the Smoke-Free Initiative at the University of Michigan, as promoted by the University President, Mary Sue Coleman. 

A Conflict of Interest: University President and Johnson & Johnson Board Member

Combining a smoking-cessation medication with behavioral therapy that emphasizes weight management is effective in helping women abstain from smoking, according to a new study.

(Duke University Medical Center) A novel technology for delivering nicotine to the lungs may soon give smokers a new way to kick the habit.

Patients in 84% of the nation's Medicaid programs have access to tobacco-dependence treatment, but the availability and extent of coverage varied significantly, researchers found.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The urge to smoke is contagious, but quitting apparently is, too. A team of researchers who showed that obesity can spread person-to-person has found a similar pattern with smoking cessation: A smoker is more likely to kick the habit if a spouse, friend, co-worker or sibling did....