Motivating smokers without judging them can prove to be an effective way of kicking the habit, says a new study.
According to a new review of studies, such a procedure can be more fruitful if a primary care physician uses a form of supportive counseling called "motivational interviewing."
The review included data from 14 studies published between 1997 and 2008, with more than 10,000 smokers involved.
"While motivational interviewing has been widely used to help people stop smoking and is recommended in many international anti-smoking guidelines, it had not yet been substantiated by evidence," said lead investigator Douglas Lai, a family medicine specialist in Hong Kong. "This is the first rigorous review of the best evidence available and the result is encouraging."
The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of the Cochrane Collaboration.
