Smoking is far more than just a physical dependancy. For those looking to quit it is just as much psychological!
Motivation is a key factor in quitting. No motivation, no reason to quit, the less likely a person is to quit!
A new motivational approach by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine was published recently and involved using Text messaging to mobile phones to provide the extra motivation. The study examined the long-term effects of specially-designed motivational text messages.
The motivated group received five text messages a day for the first five weeks and then three per week for the next 26 weeks with a personalised system which also allowed people to receive instant messages at times of need by texting the word 'crave' or 'Lapse'.
Examples of the messages include:
•"This is it! -- QUIT DAY, throw away all your fags. TODAY is the start of being QUIT forever, you can do it!"
•"Cravings last less than 5 minutes on average. To help distract yourself, try sipping a drink slowly until the craving is over."
The results showed that continuous abstinence at six months was significantly increased in the motivated group with a 10.7% success rate compared to 4.9% success rate in the control group.
Not only are motivational Text messages a convenient way for smokers to receive support to quit, the extra motivation they received clearly made the difference between deciding to quit or not. The psychological side of the addiction is clearly strong and the ability to motivate the participants in the study helped them fight their cravings.
Motivational techniques have been found to work with a number of different addictions, or other psychological illnesses. They are many times when they only thing holding a client back is their own lack of motivation. If you feel your clients need to be better motivated then look into SDS's 'Motivational Interviewing' course and start motivating your clients today!
Motivational Interviewing and Beyond"
Showing posts with label smoking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label smoking. Show all posts
Thursday, 30 June 2011
Tuesday, 18 January 2011
Motivation and Good Health
Another big NHS story to hit the news recently is the idea of the NHS providing incentives to motivate patients to become healthy.
An interesting idea in theory, as there is evidence that incentives do encourage people to continue behaviours - so if your goal is to quit smoking the the NHS rewards you, by whatever means, you are more likely to stick at it. In this example, the short term rewards for quitting is just as great (if not better than!) the long term reward (good health.)
But this idea hasn't come without controversy.
The first barrier is whether incentives are actually effective - or would the NHS just be throwing money away? So far, the results seem mixed - some hits and some misses. Unfortunately there is very little evidence at this point in time to suggest that even the positive evidence will last long term, especially after incentives are removed.
Unsurprisingly, in my mind at least anyway, a large percentage of the public is actually against NHS incentives, which struck me as rather amusing as the percentage of overweight and obese people in the UK is over 50% (or so my quick google for statistics told me.) Read into that what you will - there's no direct link between the two points, I honestly just found that interesting.
.. But people just don't feel incentives are fair.
And perhaps this is what it comes down to - fairness. It's not fair that people ruin their own health then are paid by the taxpayer to improve their health. The public seems to have no problem with surgery, e.g. for heart or lung problems, after the event - we don't seem to want people dead! - but it's not viewed as fair to help people before the absolutely need it.
I don't know which way to think - it's just an interesting point of note.
The thinkers at the NHS may have been along the right lines - motivation, it can be argued, is the number one reason people change their behaviour. I mean, why would you change your behaviour if you weren't motivated to do so - right? So their heart was in the right place.
But perhaps their are other motivations that can be used in the stead of taxpayers money? Smokers, for example, save a huge amount of money by simply not buying cigarettes! If smoker 'Frank' enjoys playing sports, what's going to motivate him more than being able to breath properly when he's running around the pitch?!
Motivation may be the key to helping people improve their on health - but maybe financial incentives are not the way to about it?
Looking to help motivate people yourself? - For more information on Motivation, have a look on our website www.skillsdevelopment.co.uk and check out our course "Motivational Interviewing and Beyond."
An interesting idea in theory, as there is evidence that incentives do encourage people to continue behaviours - so if your goal is to quit smoking the the NHS rewards you, by whatever means, you are more likely to stick at it. In this example, the short term rewards for quitting is just as great (if not better than!) the long term reward (good health.)
But this idea hasn't come without controversy.
The first barrier is whether incentives are actually effective - or would the NHS just be throwing money away? So far, the results seem mixed - some hits and some misses. Unfortunately there is very little evidence at this point in time to suggest that even the positive evidence will last long term, especially after incentives are removed.
Unsurprisingly, in my mind at least anyway, a large percentage of the public is actually against NHS incentives, which struck me as rather amusing as the percentage of overweight and obese people in the UK is over 50% (or so my quick google for statistics told me.) Read into that what you will - there's no direct link between the two points, I honestly just found that interesting.
.. But people just don't feel incentives are fair.
And perhaps this is what it comes down to - fairness. It's not fair that people ruin their own health then are paid by the taxpayer to improve their health. The public seems to have no problem with surgery, e.g. for heart or lung problems, after the event - we don't seem to want people dead! - but it's not viewed as fair to help people before the absolutely need it.
I don't know which way to think - it's just an interesting point of note.
The thinkers at the NHS may have been along the right lines - motivation, it can be argued, is the number one reason people change their behaviour. I mean, why would you change your behaviour if you weren't motivated to do so - right? So their heart was in the right place.
But perhaps their are other motivations that can be used in the stead of taxpayers money? Smokers, for example, save a huge amount of money by simply not buying cigarettes! If smoker 'Frank' enjoys playing sports, what's going to motivate him more than being able to breath properly when he's running around the pitch?!
Motivation may be the key to helping people improve their on health - but maybe financial incentives are not the way to about it?
Looking to help motivate people yourself? - For more information on Motivation, have a look on our website www.skillsdevelopment.co.uk and check out our course "Motivational Interviewing and Beyond."
Tuesday, 14 December 2010
The Best Motivation to Stop Smoking?
What's the best way to motivate smokers to quit? Tell them what their habit is doing to their insides? Show them pictures of what it's doing to their inside? Tell them how much money they could be saving?
All good ideas.
But what about showing them what smoking is doing to their outside... in the future!
Using state-of-the-art morphing technology, researchers have been able to produce images of how smokers will age if they continue to smoke compared to if they stop.
Results were successful with over two thirds of participants in the project claiming they will quit smoking as a direct consequence of seeing how their appearance will change.
Professor Sarah Grogan, Project Lead and Professor of Health Psychology, said: "We found that women were very concerned about the impact of ageing on their faces in general and in particular the additional impact of smoking on their skin - Many experienced a physical shock reaction, including reports of nausea, to seeing how they would age if they continued to smoke.
Now THAT's motivation!
The researchers plan to retest the research participants six months later to see if they kept their word and stopped smoking.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see!
Article
All good ideas.
But what about showing them what smoking is doing to their outside... in the future!
Using state-of-the-art morphing technology, researchers have been able to produce images of how smokers will age if they continue to smoke compared to if they stop.
Results were successful with over two thirds of participants in the project claiming they will quit smoking as a direct consequence of seeing how their appearance will change.
Professor Sarah Grogan, Project Lead and Professor of Health Psychology, said: "We found that women were very concerned about the impact of ageing on their faces in general and in particular the additional impact of smoking on their skin - Many experienced a physical shock reaction, including reports of nausea, to seeing how they would age if they continued to smoke.
Now THAT's motivation!
The researchers plan to retest the research participants six months later to see if they kept their word and stopped smoking.
I guess we'll just have to wait and see!
Article
Friday, 1 October 2010
How can people be motivated to make better health choices?
The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) is considering ways to persuade people to take better care of their health, due to the considerable impact that unhealthy habits are having on the NHS.
The NICE study examined a series of proposals, including one in Kent which pays dieters up to £425 for losing weight and another in Scotland which gives pregnant women shopping vouchers worth up to £650 for quitting smoking.
According to the proposals being considered by the health watchdog for England and Wales - people could be given cash incentives to encourage them to give up smoking or to lose weight.
- Can cash incentives motivate people to make better health choices?
- Are there better ways to encourage people to take care of their health or we are now at our last resort – hard cash?
- Would offering money as an incentive to improve health be cost-effective for the NHS or would the money be better spent elsewhere?
- Is it the right way forward?
Please vote – we will make sure that your answers are known to those who make decisions on the matter.
Please feel free to send us your views on the matter as well as to post comments in the comments box of the poll or on our Psychology & Psychotherapy Blog.
This is an important topic closely linked to our training on Motivational Interviewing and Beyond (http://www.skillsdevelopment.co.uk/seminars.php?courseid=5) and we will definitely address this issue as part of our course discussion. However, we would like to give all of you the opportunity to express your opinion whether you are taking part in the course or not.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Wednesday, 1 September 2010
Smoking-Mind Over Smoking-Matter: Surprising New Study Shows Cigarette Cravings Result from Habit, Not Addiction
A new study from Tel Aviv University shows why patches and nicotine gum are ineffective.
In the new study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Dr. Reuven Dar of Tel Aviv University's Department of Psychology found that the intensity of cravings for cigarettes had more to do with the psychosocial element of smoking than with the physiological effects of nicotine as an addictive chemical.
"These findings might not be popular with advocates of the nicotine addiction theory, because they undermine the physiological role of nicotine and emphasize mind over matter when it comes to smoking," Dr. Dar says. He hopes this research will help clinicians and health authorities develop more successful smoking cessation programs than those utilizing expensive nicotine patches or gum.
Dr. Dar's studies conclude that nicotine is not addictive as physiological addictions are usually defined. While nicotine does have a physiological role in increasing cognitive abilities such as attention and memory, it's not an addictive substance like heroin, which creates true systemic and biologically-based withdrawal symptoms in the body of the user, he says.
Dr. Dar believes that people who smoke do so for short-term benefits like oral gratification, sensory pleasure and social camaraderie. Once the habit is established, people continue to smoke in response to cues and in situations that become associated with smoking. Dr. Dar believes that understanding smoking as a habit, not an addiction, will facilitate treatment. Smoking cessation techniques should emphasize the psychological and behavioral aspects of the habit and not the biological aspects, he suggests.
More information on this study can be found by clicking HERE
In the new study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Dr. Reuven Dar of Tel Aviv University's Department of Psychology found that the intensity of cravings for cigarettes had more to do with the psychosocial element of smoking than with the physiological effects of nicotine as an addictive chemical.
"These findings might not be popular with advocates of the nicotine addiction theory, because they undermine the physiological role of nicotine and emphasize mind over matter when it comes to smoking," Dr. Dar says. He hopes this research will help clinicians and health authorities develop more successful smoking cessation programs than those utilizing expensive nicotine patches or gum.
Dr. Dar's studies conclude that nicotine is not addictive as physiological addictions are usually defined. While nicotine does have a physiological role in increasing cognitive abilities such as attention and memory, it's not an addictive substance like heroin, which creates true systemic and biologically-based withdrawal symptoms in the body of the user, he says.
Dr. Dar believes that people who smoke do so for short-term benefits like oral gratification, sensory pleasure and social camaraderie. Once the habit is established, people continue to smoke in response to cues and in situations that become associated with smoking. Dr. Dar believes that understanding smoking as a habit, not an addiction, will facilitate treatment. Smoking cessation techniques should emphasize the psychological and behavioral aspects of the habit and not the biological aspects, he suggests.
More information on this study can be found by clicking HERE
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