UW-CTRI Overview and Current Programs

The mission of UW-CTRI is to expand our understanding of tobacco dependence and its treatment and to use this knowledge to design and implement interventions that will significantly reduce tobacco use in Wisconsin, in the nation and beyond. The Center’s future goals include working to increase quit rates to 50 percent and developing treatments that can be better matched to individual differences. UW-CTRI’s current programs can be separately by primary emphasis—national, state and local.

National Initiatives
National initiatives include a number of research and policy programs designed to address the larger issues in tobacco control. They include federally-funded research, policy proposals for tobacco cessation, guidelines for treatment and pharmaceutical clinical trial of new medicines.

Wisconsin Programs
The death and suffering from tobacco use in Wisconsin is profound. More than 7,000 Wisconsin residents die from diseases caused by smoking each year, and smoking costs the state billions in healthcare costs and lost productivity. Over 70 percent of Wisconsin smokers want to quit and close to 50 percent try to quit each year. UW-CTRI saw the need for a comprehensive smoking cessation program in Wisconsin and created a statewide initiative designed to reduce tobacco use.

Madison and Dane County
One of CTRI’s first programs, the Smoking Cessation and Prevention Clinic, continues to offer comprehensive clinical services to help people stop smoking. The clinic, housed in the UW-CTRI offices on Monroe St. in Madison, is run by a staff of clinical psychologists, physicians and others who are experts in the field of smoking cessation. Clinic staff members help smokers understand the physical and psychological aspects of quitting smoking and help them use a variety of strategies to successfully quit.