Latest stop smoking guidance issued by PharmacyHealthLink
Guidance for pharmacists and their staff to help them understand the new cut-down-then-stop-smoking strategy (PJ, 17 September, p328) has been produced by PharmacyHealthLink.
The guidance comes in the form of a flowchart. It supplements guidance
for pharmacists on giving opportunistic
stop smoking advice recently
published by PharmacyHealthLink, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and
the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (PJ,
27 August, p243).
Miriam Armstrong, chief executive of PharmacyHealthLink, commented: “Since
the approach to treatment using nicotine
replacement therapy products is changing rapidly it is important for
us to keep pharmacists and their staff up-to-date with the latest developments.
The new message is, if you can’t stop completely — then use
NRT and try and cut down your cigarettes by at least half over a targeted
period. This has been shown to increase your chances of stopping in the
longer term.”
The period recommended for cutting down cigarettes by at least half is
six weeks.
The guidance stresses that it is always preferable for people to stop
smoking completely and, ideally, to receive behavioural support from
trained counsellors. It also recommends that pharmacists should only
provide NRT outside its licence under a patient group direction.
The smoking guidance flowchart is available on the PharmacyHealthLink
website at
www.pharmacyhealthlink.org.uk |
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