Middlesex Clinic For Smokers Has Success

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29950, 11 October 1962, Page 15

Middlesex Clinic For Smokers Has Success

(Special CoTTWpondcnt

LONDON, Oct 9. A clinic aet ap tn the centre! Middlesex Hospital. London, one of several established by the Health Ministry to help people break the smoking habit, has now reported its first real achievement.

Previously it had been stated by the Minister of Health (Mr Enoch Powell> that the clinics had met with little success.

Now, however, Middlesex states that 15 heavy smokers cut their daily average of cigarettes from 28 to four after a single visit. Four claimed to have banished cigarettes completely. "This small but significant blow against what is widely beheved to be a major cause of lung cancer has been achieved with maximum of willpower and a minimum of medicine,” says "The Tunes.” “Lobeline pills—produced from the garden plant lobelia—was the only medical help offered and not all of the voluntary patients took advantage of it.” “The Times” adds that one man who gave up 40 cigarettes daily immediately after his first visit said he felt

“wonderful” and has largely overcame the craving.

Several others admitted tn feeling “a bit irritable,” “edgy” and “fidgety.” A woman patient said she had become so distracted by the strain of it all she had once forgotten to put tea in the teapot.

A dummy cigarette in a holder helped another man through the first difficult week and a husband and wife found that fighting the battle together gave them the necessary strength of mind to stick it out.

M:st of the 15 had one thing in common —they were eating more sweets but they had all managed to get some way along the road. In addition to four who had covered the course in one bmnd, one had come down to one third of a cigarette a day, another had changed to one or two cigars. five were smoking five cigarettes or less and four were down to between seven and 12 a day.

The methods are not revolutionary or physically painful. They can best be described as group therapy. Patients gather in an informal and friendly atmosphere. A doctor encourages

them to talk about their smoking, bow they started, how many they have each day, why. when and where ■Jiey smoke. t The next step is to hammer home - facts about smoking and cancer. This is backed up by film slides showing infected lungs and other organs and pickled specimens in bottles. Then they are each asked in turn to state their cigarette goal for the coming week. Three pills a day are there if they want them.