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In a study posted online today in The Lancet, researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine report that smokers who received mobile phone text messages encouraging them to quit were more successful than those who did not. In a single-blind, randomized trial in the United Kingdom, 5,800 smokers willing to make a quit attempt were randomly allocated, using an independent telephone randomization system, to a mobile phone text messaging smoking cessation program (txt2stop), comprised of motivational messages and behavioral-change support, or to a control group that received text messages unrelated to quitting. The primary outcome was self-reported continuous smoking abstinence, biochemically verified at six months. Abstinence at six months was significantly increased in the txt2stop group.
Depression can make it significantly harder for smokers to quit. Read more about smoking and depression in Psychiatric News at http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/content/45/11/6.1.full.