Impact of smoking programs in substance abuse treatment facilities: Do we practice what we preach?

Smoking cessation in substance abuse treatment facilities has been shown to increase sobriety for those patients in treatment for alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. The purpose of this study is to investigate if those facilities with smoking cessation programs actually differ in system-level support for smoking cessation. In-depth telephone interviews were used to collect data from 226 program administrators at substance abuse treatment centers across the United States. The treatment centers were randomly selected from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) database. 63.8% of programs reported they have some sort of therapy primarily dedicated to smoking cessation within their treatment center. Those who have a primary treatment are more likely than those who do not to identify all smokers at intake (OR=2.89; p=0.002), provide counselor training on smoking cessation treatments (OR=20.61, p=0.002), provide counselor resources for smoking cessation treatments (OR=12.69, p<0.001), provide clinical supervision on smoking cessation treatments (OR=21.37, p<0.001), have a dedicated staff to provide smoking cessation treatments (OR=8.21, p<0.001), assess smoking cessation treatment in staff evaluations (OR=1.64, p<0.007), and provide evidence based treatments as services (OR=46.25, p<0.001). There are an increasing number of substance abuse facilities turning to smoking cessation as a part of treatment. This trend might indicate the increased importance of providing smoking cessation programs for drug and alcohol addicted patients.