Gholamreza Heydari
Tobacco prevention and control research center, Iran
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Neurol Neurophysiol
Many of opium abusers are tobacco smokers, though they would like to quit smoking but unfortunately only a small number of them can benefit from assistance in this respect. Thus, authorities in different countries are responsible for providing low-cost and cost-effective interventions and quit programs to help smokers stop smoking. Nicotine addiction is rarely regarded with the same urgency as drug narcotics abuse in the scope of public health. The aim of this study was to evaluate effect of merging smoking cessation with drug abuse treatment nationally. This was a cross sectional study of educating 3 sessions quit smoking intervention with clinical behavioral therapy CBT and medication in 24 drug abuse treatment center in 6 districts of Iran in 2016. More than 2000 clients were involved with mean age of 41 and 89% male. 78% of them were satisfied with this new treatment and after 6 months, 23% had quit smoking, smoking less than half amount at first was seen in 46% and 31% were yet a smoker. In conclusion, smoking cessation intervention with CBT and medication can have a significant impact on the general health of drug abusers.
Gholamreza Heydari completed his MD in 1996, and has done MPH and PhD degrees on Epidemiology from Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. He is currently the Director of Tobacco Prevention and Control Research Center and WHO Collaborating Center on Tobacco Control in Eastern Mediterranean region and also the Chairman and Editor-in- Chief of many tobacco control journals of Iran. He is conducting several studies on tobacco control and smoking cessation in Iran. He has more than 40 papers on this topic internationally. He has attended many training courses such as Classical Method in Data Analysis, Erasmus Medical University, Netherlands, December 2001; Tobacco Free Initiative for Clinicians, St George’s Hospital, London, England, July 2002 and Smoking Cessation, European Respiratory Society School, Bucharest, Romania, December 2004.
Email: ghrheydari@yahoo.com
