[Reading Science] Science and Technology That Help Smoking Cessation

Smoking is a ‘disease.’ It is one of the major causes of death. As of 2019, about 14% of deaths worldwide were due to smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer. With everyone advocating for quitting smoking, the global smoking rate has recently decreased. It dropped from 28% in 1990 to 20% in 2019. However, due to population growth, the number of smokers is actually increasing. Many smokers still cannot break free from the cycle of ‘three-day determination,’ where they quit but then start smoking again.

“How can I quit smoking?” has long been a concern for smokers who care about their health. Recently, however, scientists have developed technology to help quit smoking using advanced techniques. The transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) procedure, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August 2020, is one such technology. At that time, the FDA stated that this procedure produces effects similar to bupropion, a chemical smoking cessation treatment that blocks nicotine receptors in the brain (1.62 times more effective than placebo). There are other clinical trial results as well. A research team from Ben-Gurion University in Israel published a paper in 2021 reporting that 28% of 262 long-term smokers who underwent the procedure maintained smoking cessation. This is more than twice the rate of the placebo control group (12%). Although lower than the maximum 40% success rate of smoking cessation aids, this result is clinically significant because stricter criteria for successful cessation were applied. Side effects were minimal. Unlike smoking cessation aids, which can be difficult for patients with depression due to side effects, only a very small number experienced headaches or discomfort.

Of course, there is still a long way to go. The procedure is currently available only at a few hospitals in the U.S., Europe, and India. It is not covered by insurance, and although rare, there is a risk of seizures. Its efficiency also needs to be improved. However, the future looks bright. Scientists are steadily conducting research to standardize and generalize the procedure. Especially as understanding of the brain’s structure and function related to addiction improves, TMS techniques are advancing. Personalized procedures using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) have even been developed. Initially approved for depression treatment in 2008, the scope was expanded to include obsessive-compulsive disorder treatment in 2018.

Scientists expect that TMS procedures will be actively used in the future not only for smoking but also for treating various types of addiction disorders such as drug addiction. A day may come when people suffering from attention disorders, headaches, or essential tremor can simply receive a quick procedure at a hospital and quit smoking automatically without reaching for a cigarette again.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.