Some people are unwilling or unable to stop smoking, but are prepared to try and reduce the numbers of cigarettes they smoke each day. After studying healthcare literature, a team of Cochrane Researchers could find only a few reports that assessed methods aimed at helping people reduce use. It is also unclear whether cutting down the number of cigarettes delivers clear health benefits.
The main effort in therapies aimed at smokers has been at helping them to stop smoking completely. Little attention has been given to the idea of helping them reduce their use.
Firstly, they found that between 6% and 9% of people using nicotine replacement therapy delivered by either chewing gum or inhaler managed to reduce their use of cigarettes.
Secondly they found no evidence that the treatments that aimed to help people reduce their use diverted them from attempting to stop completely. “In fact cessation rates were higher, not lower, in nicotine replacement treatment groups,”
clipped from: www.eurekalert.org