Smoking Cessation with Weight Gain Prevention A Group Program

Cigarette smoking is the single greatest preventable cause of death, disease, and disability in the United States. It is the number one cancer killer of women, surpassing breast cancer. More than 70% of smokers have expressed a desire to quit, but are unable to do so alone. Independent cessation is extremely difficult, with a long-term success rate of 3-9%.Couple this difficulty with the fact that many female (and some male) smokers do not even try to quit because they are afraid of the resulting weight gain, and it seems a near impossibility for smokers to quit alone. Any amount of counseling, from even one ten-minute session, drastically improves a person's chances for cessation success. Many therapists have clients who smoke, yet they do not encourage them to quit because they feel under-equipped to help them. There are very few books for mental health workers that teach smoking cessation techniques; almost all of the books on the market are self-help based. This book is to be used with the therapist guide as a resource for the monitoring forms, questionnaires and homework assignments that are crucial to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT.) Structured as a 16-week group program, the treatment outlined in the therapist guide and reinforced in this book teaches clients to break their smoking habit, and to avoid replacing that habit with unhealthy eating.

Bonnie Spring is the Director of Behavioral Medicine, Co-Program Leader in Cancer Prevention, Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University, in Chicago, IL.