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Adolescent Smoking

Epidemiology and Approaches for Achieving Cessation

  • Therapy In Practice
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Abstract

The initiation of smoking typically occurs during adolescence. To date, most adolescent smoking control efforts have focused on prevention; attempting to identify and influence factors that contribute to experimentation and initiation. However, given the large number of adolescent smokers, it is important that effort also be directed toward facilitating cessation.

Many adolescents are addicted to cigarettes and report withdrawal symptoms that are similar to those experienced by adults. Relapse rates are high; few adolescents who try to quit on their own are successful. Clinician-delivered smoking cessation interventions have a positive impact in adults and should be applied to adolescents to promote and sustain abstinence.

Although pharmaceutical aids for cessation have been shown to be well tolerated and effective in adults, less is known about their use in adolescents. As such, clinicians are encouraged to explore whether pharmaceutical aids have been approved for use in adolescents in their country and to use discretion when considering their use in patients <18 years of age. Because pediatricians are in a unique position to facilitate tobacco cessation counseling, they should routinely ask their patients whether they use tobacco, advise users to quit, assess readiness to quit, assist with quitting, and arrange follow-up counseling. Tobacco cessation efforts can be enhanced by teaming with other health professionals (e.g. nurses, dentists, pharmacists, social workers) or worksite and community-based organizations that provide health promotion services.

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Acknowledgements

Supported by National Cancer Institute grant R01 CA69425 to AV Prokhorov, and the University of California Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program grant 10ST-0339 to KS Hudmon.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral Science, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Blvd, Box 243, Houston, Texas, 77030, USA

    Alexander V. Prokhorov & Nancy Stancic

  2. Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA

    Karen Suchanek Hudmon

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  1. Alexander V. Prokhorov
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  2. Karen Suchanek Hudmon
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  3. Nancy Stancic
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Correspondence to Alexander V. Prokhorov.

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Prokhorov, A.V., Hudmon, K.S. & Stancic, N. Adolescent Smoking. Pediatr-Drugs 5, 1–10 (2003). https://doi.org/10.2165/00128072-200305010-00001

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