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Tobacco Cessation News :
UW-CTRI Leads Update of Guideline on Treating Tobacco Use

clinical practice guideline  

The Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (UW-CTRI) at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is leading a group of 27 experts who are updating the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guideline: Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence, the most widely distributed guideline ever released by the U. S. Public Health Service.

“We want the most current information available on treating tobacco use to be at clinicians’ fingertips,” says UW-CTRI’s Michael Fiore, panel chair for the update. 

Since the publication of the last update in 2000, there has been a dramatic increase in published research about tobacco cessation counseling and treatment, including the effectiveness of quit lines and what works best to help specific groups of people to quit. The FDA has also approved two new medications - the nicotine lozenge and varenicline - to help people quit, with more medications currently undergoing testing.  

The panel is determining the topics for the update. The key criteria will be substantial new research findings--ideally resulting from clinical trials--regarding a tobacco treatment topic. They then will review the thousands of articles published since the last update. The updated guideline will be published and distributed in early 2008.

More than five million copies of the current guideline and related products have already been delivered to clinicians, researchers and public health professionals around the world, and this has systematically changed the way many approach tobacco dependence. One of the most significant achievements was the establishment of smoking status as a vital sign to be taken at every patient visit. According to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, healthcare providers ask about 90 percent of patients about tobacco use and advise about 70 percent to quit. Those numbers seem to be growing every year.

“We hope that once the update is completed, healthcare providers will have even more tools at their disposal to help patients live healthier, smoke-free lives,” Fiore says.

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