Majority Of UK GPs Would Prescribe E-Cigarettes, If They Were Regulated

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Article Date: 04 Mar 2013 - 0:00 PDT


New report, published in GP Magazine today, concludes "GPs averse to nicotine delivery devices being introduced to the market without a robust regulatory system in place."

However, e-cigarettes could be the answer to help reduce health inequalities and save lives.

That's according to the findings of new research, which asked both GPs and smokers for their opinions on current stop-smoking initiatives:

• 7 in 10 smokers want to quit but find it hard with current help available
• 65 per cent of GPs do not currently know enough about e-cigarettes
• 68 per cent of GPs would prescribe e-cigarettes if they were regulated
• 44 per cent of smokers would try e-cigarettes if prescribed by their GP

Smoking remains the single biggest preventable cause of early death and illness in the UK, with one in five adults (around 10 million people) being smokers. Tobacco control measures have led to a decrease in smoking prevalence but the decline in smoking rates has lost momentum in recent years with no significant change in the prevalence of smoking in the last five years.

With an annual cost to the NHS attributable to smoking estimated at around £2.7bnv, and recent figures published in Annals of Oncology showing the number of lung cancer cases in the UK - particularly among women - is still rising, in a world first the UK's Department of Health is looking at a radical new approach to the smoking epidemic.

Currently smokers only receive 12 weeks of a nicotine-containing product, such as gum or patches, on prescription alongside support from a Stop Smoking Advisor. The draft guidance from NICE on harm reduction approaches to smoking, published in October 2012, recommends that health professionals should offer nicotine-containing products on prescription to people who smoke, as part of a harm-reduction strategy to abstain from smoking on a short, medium or longer-term basis.

Nearly 40 per cent of smokers would be more likely to try and quit using a nicotine-containing product if they were available for longer than 12 weeks, a new survey reveals, which is promising given that it also shows 64 per cent of smokers currently want to quit.

The findings have been released in conjunction with today's publication of a report from GP Magazine in which GPs agreed the NICE guidance offers a pragmatic approach to managing smokers who are unwilling or unable to quit; and a potentially meaningful way of decreasing the current 20 per cent prevalence of smoking in the UKi.

Dr Roger Henderson, a GP from Shropshire, said: "Encouraging patients to swap cigarettes for nicotine-containing products would dramatically improve their health and could potentially save millions of lives. However, although helpful, few smokers find current Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) to be a satisfying alternative to smoking. For some smokers it's not just the nicotine, it is a conditioned habit that is triggered by the sensory cues and rituals so often associated with smoking. The need to address this may in part explain the dramatic rise in the use of e-cigarettes by smokers trying to quit, as they offer smokers a similar experience to their normal habit."

The Royal College of Physicians has been calling for new nicotine products since 2007 stating that: "If nicotine could be provided in a form that is acceptable and effective as a cigarette substitute, millions of lives could be saved." In fact it is estimated that a switch of just one per cent of smokers a year from smoking to less harmful nicotine sources could save around 60,000 lives in only 10 years.

E-cigarettes are currently the only products that deliver nicotine with an experience closer to cigarettes, and therefore could be the answer to the country's smoking problem. However, many of the GPs participating in the GP Magazine forum, sponsored by Nicoventures, were averse to nicotine delivery devices being introduced to the market without a robust regulatory system in placei.

Additional GP survey data:

• 65 per cent of the GPs surveyed admitted they do not know enough about e-cigarettes and whether they are safe
• 68 per cent say that if e-cigarettes were regulated, they would recommend them
• Seven in 10 GPs say they have patients who want to quit but find it difficult with the current help available
• Despite the draft NICE guidance being published in October 2012 and the final due in spring 2013, 73 per cent of the GPs surveyed were not aware of the new tobacco harm reduction approach

Additional smoker survey data:

• The smokers surveyed had all smoked for more than five years and on average smoked 15 cigarettes per day
• All smokers questioned admitted that they had tried to quit, with the average number being three times, but had never been successful
• 44 per cent of smokers say they would be more likely to try an e-cigarette if prescribed by their GP

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