Smoking is a major health problem of the society as it causes a wide variety of health hazards and produces a strong addictive behavior. Various pharmacological and non pharmacological treatments have been tried for smoking cessation from time to time. Some of the pharmacological treatments have been able to achieve the status of first line and second line therapy for smoking cessation by the US Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline. Some newer and very promising drugs have come up and are in the clinical trials for establishment of their efficacy. While some other drugs have been tried from time to time but have failed to show any consistent results. Various non pharmacological therapies like behavioural therapy are also of utmost importance in this regard. This article gives a brief review and critical assessment of the existing and the emerging smoking cessation therapies.
Non-Malaysian publication: India