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Response to offer of hypnotherapy and success rates in smokers who have relapsed after treatment by the NHS Stop Smoking Service
Maria Spellacy, Community Smoking Advisor, Leeds
Abstract
Very little is known about the motivation of clients to return to receive further help from the NHS Stop Smoking Services (SSS). Neither is much known about their relapse rates after the end of treatment. Hypnotherapy has not been found to be more effective than conventional behavioral support in randomized trials but if it is broadly as effective and also attractive to smokers who have returned to smoking after receiving help from the NHS Stop Smoking Service, it might have a role to play.
This paper reports findings from a pilot study that followed up 165 smokers who had received one-to-one counseling at least 12 months and up to 4 years later; 110 had been abstinent at the end of the treatment and 55 had not. The current smoking status was recorded and those that were smoking were offered a single session of hypnotherapy plus NRT and those that underwent this treatment were followed up for 6 months.
Of 110 clients who had been abstinent at the end of treatment 28 (26%) were still abstinent, 25 (23%) had relapsed but tried again and were now abstinent while 57 (51%) were smoking. Of the 55 who had not succeeded initially, 8(15%) had tried again and were still abstinent while 47 (85%) were smoking.
Of those that were smoking 84 (81%) were interested in receiving further help of whom 73
(87%) accepted the offer of hypnotherapy while 11 (13%) wanted conventional treatment. Of those wanting hypnotherapy, 66 (90%) attended and 53 (73%) were judged suitable and had the session of hypnotherapy treatment. Of these 22 (42%) were abstinent at 4 weeks and 9 (17%) were abstinent at 6 months. Bearing in mind that the client group consisted of smokers who had all ultimately relapsed following treatment by the SSS, this success rate seems to be in line with what might be expected from behavioral support. The result suggest that offer of a single session of hypnotherapy for smokers who have relapsed following behavioral support may be attractive to many smokers and that success rates are within the range that would be expected from more conventional counseling even though it involved only one session.
While hypnotherapy may be no more effective than conventional counseling, it may be worth considering as a cost-effective alternative in smokers that find it attractive. This is an issue that merits further study.
Biography
Maria Spellacy works part-time as a Community Smoking Advisor in East Leeds. Since 2000 she has seen over 800 clients in one-to-one sessions, where the majority comes from socially deprived areas and are on free prescriptions. She is trained as a hypnotherapist in 2004 and is member of the General Hypnotherapy Register.
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