Motivational Interviewing: An Effective Approach to Smoking Cessation

(Access to Coverage of Tobacco Treatment In Our Nation)

August 2, 2010 - A recent review published in Tobacco Control, “Efficacy of Motivational Interviewing for Smoking Cessation: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis,” assessed the effects of motivational interviewing for smoking cessation. Motivational interviewing is a client-based intervention designed to motivate behavioral change. It involves four main principles: expressing empathy; helping clients to develop a discrepancy between how their lives currently are and how they would like them to be; recognizing that resistance to change is a natural occurrence; and engaging patients in self-efficacy.

Researchers Heckman et al. reviewed thirty-one different randomized trials which incorporated motivational interviewing into a smoking cessation intervention and reported the number of smokers who quit at follow-up for their results. An analysis of these studies reported that the likelihood of abstinence with motivational interviewing was 1.46 times that of the likelihood for abstinence among those who received smoking cessation interventions that did not involve motivational interviewing. Study results show that motivational interviewing may be an effective approach in a smoking cessation intervention for adolescents and adults. However, more studies are needed before stronger conclusions can be made.

For more information please visit: http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2010/07/30/tc.2009.033175.abstract

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