About the Blog Author-John R. Hughes, MD
John R. Hughes, MD is Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Family Practice at the University of Vermont. Dr. Hughes is board certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry. His major focus has been clinical research on tobacco use. Dr. Hughes received the Ove Ferno Award for research in nicotine dependence and the Alton Ochsner Award Relating Smoking and Health. He is a co-founder and past president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, and the Association for the Treatment of Tobacco Use and Dependence. Dr. Hughes has been Chair of the Vermont Tobacco Evaluation and Review Board which oversees VT’s multi-million dollar tobacco control programs. He has over 400 publications on nicotine and other drug dependencies and is one of the world’s most cited tobacco scientist. Dr. Hughes has been a consultant on tobacco policy to the World Health Organization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the White House. His current research is on how tobacco users and marijuana users stop or reduce use on their own, novel methods to prompt quit attempts by such users, whether smoking cessation reduces reward sensitivity and whether stopping e-cigarettes causes withdrawal. Dr Hughes has received fees from companies who develop smoking cessation devices, medications and services, from governmental and academic institutions, and from public and private organizations that promote tobacco control.
News
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Is it Best to Switch or Add to New Treatment When Trying to Quit Again?
A recent article based on very large prospective study reported that smokers who failed a quit attempt on one medication, tried again and used a different medication, had 3 times higher success rates than those who tried again and used the same medication (Heckman et al Am J Prev Med, in press). Although this is not an experimental study, it does suggest switching is better. The effect did not appear to be due to switching to a more effective medication.... -
Repeat quit attempts: Use new therapy or old therapy?
Most smokers who seek individual treatment for smoking cessation have tried to quit in the past and many have already used a behavioral or pharmacological treatment. Assessing why past treatments were used, compliance and perceived benefit of the prior treatment is recommended in most treatment guidelines. However, whether it is best to repeat old treatments or use new treatments is unclear. Several studies have examined re-treatment with the same medication (i.e., recycling)... -
Choosing a Counseling Therapy
fter many years of stagnation in improving counseling approaches for helping smokers stop, we have several new counseling treatments. Most prominent are a) Motivational Interviewing, b) Reduction in cigarettes/day, c) Mindfulness Therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Randomized trials show that MI (Cochrane Review, 2015) and reduction in cigarettes/day (Cochrane Review, 2015) both increase quitting among those not ready to quit, and also among those already trying to quit (although there is...