The Effects of Different Instructions on Smoking Cessation for Individuals with Different Degrees of Dependence

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Abstract
Therapist instructions and patient expectations appear to yield good treatment results with placebo pills. In this study the smoking cessation rate was studied after administration of a placebo smoking withdrawal chewing gum. Two groups from two factories were recruited and given instructions that they were to receive an effective chewing gum for smoking cessation. One group was told that the gum contained nicotine while the other was told that it worked through its special taste. At follow-up periods of 1, 3 and 8 weeks those given the nicotine instructions were superior to those given the taste instructions, although not significantly so. When nicotine dependence was taken into consideration it was found that the more nicotine dependent half of the subjects responded significantly better to the nicotine instructions as compared to the low dependent subjects.