How much accessibility do patients in substance abuse treatment centers really have of pharmacological and behavioral treatments for smoking cessation?

Many substance abuse treatment facilities do not necessarily make an effort to encourage smoking cessation, even if they have patients who are interested in quitting. The purpose of this study is to investigate the availability that patients have of pharmacological and behavioral treatments for smoking cessation. The study population of substance abuse counselors was derived from over 1,000 randomly-selected facilities using the SAMHSA database. A total of 1,054 counselors completed a web-based survey. We investigated what counselors actually provided to the last 10 patients who were addicted to nicotine. We found that behavioral therapies were much more accessible to patients than pharmacological therapies. Even though 45.1% of treatment centers reported accessibility of the nicotine patch, only 10.2% of the last 10 patients received this treatment. Similar trends are seen with other pharmacological therapies, including 29.9% having access to nicotine gum, with only 6.3% of their last 10 patients actually receiving this treatment. In terms of behavioral treatments, they were more accessible than pharmacological treatments. However, as with pharmacological therapies, they are not administered at a high percentage. This study will report on each of the therapies, both in accessibility and administration. From previous research, the best results for nicotine dependence are a combination of pharmacological and behavioral therapies. Given this research, it is important to include both therapies when treating nicotine addiction. Research in barriers to pharmacological therapies is the next step to treating nicotine addiction in drug and alcohol addicted patients.