Smoking cessation: clinical steps to improve compliance.
Smoking tobacco contributes to and exacerbates many chronic diseases of aging, including hypertension, stroke, COPD, heart disease, and atherosclerosis. It is also associated with an increased risk of peptic ulcers and of cancers of the lungs and oral cavity. Older patients generally continue to smoke because of physiologic and psychological addiction to nicotine. Nicotine administration through gum or patch eases the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal for highly-tolerant patients. Detecting and treating alcohol abuse, depression, or life stress may then make it easier to motivate the patient to quit smoking. Physician advice combined with follow-up visits and phone calls has been shown to be one of most effective methods of getting patients to stop smoking.