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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Nicotine addiction has reached its highest level within the last 15 years.
Almost 75 percent of people currently being treated for tobacco-dependence are categorized as highly nicotine dependent. The number of people severely dependent on nicotine jumped 12 percent from 1989 to 2006 while the proportion of people classified as highly nicotine dependent jumped 32 percent.
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These figures did not surprise the studys lead author David P. Sachs, M.D., director of the Palo Alto Center for Pulmonary Disease Prevention in Palo Alto, California. After treating tobacco dependent patients for the last 25 years and conducting many tobacco dependence clinical treatment trials, I began to see a shift in severity of physical, nicotine dependence that required me to develop more intensive treatment plans for my patients, he was quoted as saying.
Dr. Sachs says physicians may need to address the increase in nicotine dependence by increasing pharmacologic doses and the duration medications are used. He also says it may be helpful to try different combinations of medicines and to place more of an emphasis on reducing withdrawal symptoms to avoid treatment failure.
Todays severely nicotine-dependent patient may not respond to the current standard in tobacco dependence treatment, much of which is based on nicotine dependence data and outmoded treatment concepts from 15 years ago, Dr. Sachs said.
SOURCE: CHEST 2008, October 25-30, 2008; Philadelphia, Pa.
If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Lindsay Braun at lbraun@ivanhoe.com.
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