Gradual Reduction works better then Cold Turkey for Quitting smoking

Smokers trying to quit may have a better chance of success if they let the clock tell them when to have a cigarette.

The strategy proved twice as successful in the long term as quitting cold turkey according to a study reported in the June issue of The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

The timed reduction strategy assigns smokers specific times of day for lighting up. The schedule gradually lengthens the intervals between cigarettes until a smoker quits altogether.

"They're still going to get to smoke, they're just not going to get to smoke when they want to smoke," said one of the researchers, Dr. Paul Cinciripini, director of the smoking-cessation program at the University of Texas's M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.

Gradual Reduction of Ingestion of Nicotine and Tar (GRINT)

GRINT (Gradual Reduction Method) is an alternative to NRT (Nicotine Replacement Therapy) and other drug-based smoking cessation methods.

Compared with other methods available on the market, the GRINT technique, also known as the Gradual Reduction Method (GRM), is unique and innovative, as it does not make use of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) or other methods based on medicaments.

With NRT, the smoker stops abruptly, using medication in the form of patches, gums, inhalers or tablets to continue the supply of nicotine for up to 3 months to help overcome nicotine addiction.  Another drug-based treatment, only available on prescription, is the anti-depressant bupropion (‘Zyban’); a low dose in the last two weeks before quitting rises to full strength, taken for about 3 months after quitting.  Research shows that both NRT and bupropion create extra problems for smokers: they have their own side-effects and, for the majority of smokers, do not deliver the hoped-for results.

The problem for most smokers, particularly those who have previously tried to stop, is that they know that abruptly stopping is going to be a painful and difficult experience, demanding significant willpower and resilience and would prefer to use a gradual reduction method (1).    Approximately 30 per cent of women who smoke in Britain continue to smoke during pregnancy. There are 4000 chemical in cigarettes of which there are more than 30 known carcinogens. A German study showed traces of NNK, (nicotine-derived nitrosaminoketone) which is one of the strongest cancer causing agents found in tobacco products. It was detected in 22 of 31 newborns of mothers who smoked during pregnancy.