The last recommendations on smoking cessation dated from 2003. More than 10 years later and after having noted with regret that tobacco remains “an unparalleled scourge of public health which kills one in two smokers and loses 20 to 25 years of life expectancy for those who do not give up smoking “, the High Authority for Health (HAS) has just published new recommendations. And the health authority intends to send them to all health professionals, first and foremost general practitioners, to help them show their patients the path to smoking cessation and follow them along this obstacle course.
“Only 3% of smokers who try to quit by the sole fact of their will and without help do so. Support from the attending physician must therefore be at the heart of the process of quitting the smoker” underlines Dr Cédric Grouchka , member of the College of the High Authority for Health.
Stop smoking: the place of the electronic cigarette
These new recommendations from the high health authority were eagerly awaited while the electronic cigarette has become a real social phenomenon with nearly one in 5 French people claiming to have already tested it. But on the subject, the health authorities remain intractable: “It would not be serious to consider that the electronic cigarette has a place in the therapeutic arsenal to stop smoking because its effectiveness and its harmlessness have not been sufficiently evaluated at this point. day “explains Dr Grouchka. HAS considers, on the other hand, that, because of its lower toxicity compared to cigarettes, its use in a smoker who has started vaping “should not be discouraged, provided it is temporary and with the intention of stopping” .
Quitting smoking: first-line treatments
No question, therefore, of granting the e-cigarette an official place of anti-smoking partner. Support in stopping smoking should be done, as a first-line treatment, with nicotine-based treatments: patches, gums, sucking tablets, inhalers or oral sprays. “These treatments will be prescribed and adapted after assessment of tobacco dependence. Medicines (varenicline ert bupropion) also have their place but should be prescribed as second-line” insists the HAS.
Finally, alternative methods such as acupuncture or hypnotherapy “should not be discouraged if the smoker considers them useful in his approach, in addition to the recommended methods”.
