Psychologists and tobacco: attitudes to cessation counseling and patterns of use

Background Psychologists can play an important role in helping their clients stop using tobacco. The extent to which they do so, or quit themselves, has not been reported previously. The utility of snus in reducing smoking prevalence is also questioned and merits study. Method A 36-item self-completion questionnaire was mailed to a random sample of 1000 Swedish psychologists. Results The response rate was 85%. Very few psychologists (1%) ‘often’ helped clients to stop using tobacco. While a majority (72%) believed that quitting tobacco use would improve their clientʹs quality of life, most (75%) thought that it was not their responsibility to help clients stop and 74% felt they lacked the necessary skills. About 8% of psychologists smoked cigarettes daily. Use of snus as an aid to cigarette cessation was common in men, but not women, although overall, the percentage of smokers who had quit smoking (72%) did not differ by gender. Conclusions Most Swedish psychologists have stopped smoking, but very few help their clients to quit. Targeted campaigns aimed at encouraging and supporting psychologists to treat nicotine dependence are needed. This could increase cessation rates in the population. Snus helped reduce smoking prevalence among men and is a potentially useful harm reduction tool.