TOBACCO CESSATION INTERVENTIONS CURRENT CONCEPTS: AN OVERVIEW

Background: Tobacco is a modern day epidemic that poses substantial health burden and is the
single greatest preventable cause of death in the world. The physical addiction to tobacco is a key
factor in continued tobacco use. Approximately 40 % of the smokers attempt to quit annually, yet less
than 5% do, hence tobacco addiction is best considered as a chronic relapsing diseases. Objectives:
To compile, collate and provide evidences regarding effectiveness of various models of tobacco
cessation therapies for quitting of tobacco habits. Materials and Method: Articles required for the
narrative review were collected from the searches in the electronic data bases such as PubMed,
PubMed Central, Google Scholar. Various effective pharmacological and behavioral interventions are
there to assist people to overcome the addiction. In pharmacotherapy several effective medications
are available for treating tobacco addiction and their ability to reduce tobacco use and related diseases
is potentially large. Clonidine and nortriptyline are effective but they are regarded as second-line
drugs due to their side effects. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), varenicline and bupropion SR
are regarded first-line medications. The review aims to summarize literature on various
pharmacological interventions currently used to treat tobacco dependence.