Smoking cessation strategies in primary care, including pharmacotherapy?

Smoking cessation strategies in primary care include:

• Offering advice and support to all people who smoke to stop, including referral to local NHS stop smoking services or providing information on how to access these services ¹.
• Encouraging people who are more dependent on nicotine to attend smoking cessation services, as they may need higher support, medication doses, and multiple attempts ¹.
• Providing evidence-based interventions such as behavioral support (individual and group), advice on stop smoking treatments (NRT, cytisinicline, varenicline, bupropion), and e-cigarettes ¹.
• Using behavioral support techniques like individual counseling, group counseling, and adjunctive counseling by health professionals to increase cessation rates ¹.
• Follow-up visits with repeat support to improve long-term abstinence, especially in the first few weeks after quitting ¹.
• Monitoring CO levels as a motivational behavioral support technique ¹.

Pharmacotherapy options in primary care include:

• Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT), varenicline, and bupropion, which are effective and more successful than placebo at maintaining abstinence for at least 6 months ¹.
• Offering NRT, including patches, lozenges, mouth sprays, and combination NRT (patch plus short-acting forms), tailored to individual preferences and nicotine dependence levels ¹.
• Starting NRT on the quit date, with sufficient supply for at least 2 weeks after the quit date ¹.
• Providing behavioral support alongside pharmacotherapy to increase success rates ¹.