Hypnotherapy is proven to be the most effective method of stopping smoking

Stopping smoking for some can be the most elusive of events. Those of us who have smoked or who still smoke will know just how hard quitting can be.  So where do we turn to have the best possible chance of success? 

According to the largest ever scientific study of quit smoking methods Hypnotherapy turns out to be the most effective therapy to help smokers quit.  The study, carried out by Frank Schmidt and a research student of the University of Iowa was a meta analysis of more than 600 studies covering almost 72 000 Americans, Scandinavians and Europeans. 

Perhaps not surprisingly to many smokers, will power alone proved to have a pretty poor showing. But perhaps more of a surprise to our medical colleagues at least, is that GP’s advice alone had the poorest effect of all, proving to have almost no positive impact whatsoever.

The results, published in a recent issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology, show that the average success rate for all methods was only 19 per cent:  this suggests that about one in five smokers are likely to succeed overall, using methods included in the study. 

Encouragingly, for most smokers, the most effective quit smoking method was hypnotherapy. The analysis of hypnotherapy treatment that included 48 studies covering over 6000 smokers, gave an average success rate of 30%.  When compared to self-help, in the form of books or mail-order advice coming in at around 9% and nicotine gum at a poor 10% (the NHS stop smoking service has spent untold £millions in any given year on Nicotine replacement therapy) hypnotherapy comes out as the ‘can do’ therapy of choice for smokers.

What came top of the ‘quit smoking Pops’ was: Patients who had been diagnosed with serious heart disease problems who enjoyed a whacking 36% success rate. Well done them - I am just not so sure that I would want to wait until my heart was on the verge of breaking down and literally puffing to a standstill before I made my attempt at stopping though.

Make no mistake; smoking is without a doubt a killer. Shockingly, approximately one out of every two people die from a smoking related disease and according to The World Health Organisation;

 “The tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing nearly six million people a year. More than five million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600 000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke. Approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco, accounting for one in 10 adult deaths. “

On a positive note, 3 out of every 4 smokers would like to stop, it’s never too late to quit smoking and quitting greatly reduces the risk of smoking related illness and premature death. 

Many people have successfully given up smoking and while often people who want to stop don't feel ready, there is never a better time to quit than now. Clearly hypnotherapy with an experienced specialist hypnotherapist can help you quit, so why not start right now by giving us a call on:

0700 340 1567

http://www.freedomtherapyclinic.com