High Complexity Multidisciplinary Consultation Unit for Smoking at the Clínic

Primary Care Centres are where people interested in stopping smoking should go. These centres coordinate with decentralised areas or reference hospitals when dealing with patients who have some complexity or who have two or more diseases at the same time (comorbidity).

The Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, for example, has a High Complexity Multidisciplinary Smoking Consultation Unit which treats referred patients who cannot be treated in primary care for some reason; for example, transplant patients or those with cardiovascular, respiratory or oncological diseases or those with a mental health-related disorder. Some of these people may have made several attempts to dropout from pharmacological treatment and psychobehavioural support, but have relapsed.

Some consultancy statistics

From a series of 142 patients:

• More than 70% began smoking before the age of 19 and, at the time of consultation, smoked an average of 22 cigarettes a day.
• On average, the study population had been smoking for more than 42 years.
• Most patients had other associated, simultaneous diseases (or comorbidity); mental health disorders; respiratory or cardiological complications; oncological diseases or diseases related to other addictions; or, to a lesser extent, had received a transplant.
• More than half of the patients (53%) remained abstinent at the third month of follow-up. Those who were more motivated to stop smoking achieved better results. It was also observed that the greater the number of comorbid conditions a smoker had, the greater the success rate achieved in quitting smoking.