MANUAL OF SMOKING CESSATION

by Andy McEwen, Peter Hajek, Hayden McRobbie, Robert West

Published by Blackwell at £19.99. 151 pages.

ISBN 10: 1-40513-337-7.

How appropriate – in these days of changing laws about smoking in public areas, and the acknowledgement by governments and health professionals alike that smoking is drug addiction – that this book should appear for review.

The National Institute of Drug Addiction in the US published a research paper in 1998 and revised it last year. This states that nicotine is one of the hardest drugs to kick, and probably the most abused.

Recovery from nicotine abuse is, as with all addictive substances and behaviours, a process and prone to relapse. This book offers a sound cognitive evidence-based system of stopping and staying stopped from a major addictive illness.

As someone who has worked in both first- and second-stage addiction-treatment facilities,
I believe that smoking cessation is vital for a solid recovery.

The authors show the damage which smoking does to organs, to the body holistically, and how the effect of smoking restricts and shortens people’s lives. It is not a threatening book, more a discussion as to the pros and cons of a major lifestyle change.

Richard C Renson AdvDipCoun, NCAC is a psychotherapist working with people with addictive behaviours; he works with Priory Healthcare.