Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit. Willpower, it turns out, counts for very little.
Smokers are coming under increasing pressure to quit. Earlier this month the Institute of Actuaries published the results of a study it commissioned which showed that the mortality rate for smokers is twice as high as for nonsmokers, and that, on average, a smoker dies 6 years earlier than a nonsmoker. Surveys suggest that three in four smokers would like to give up, according to the antismoking campaign Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).
To find the most effective way to give up smoking, Frank Schmidt and research student Chockalingam Viswesvaran of the University of Iowa carried out a meta-analysis, statistically combining the results of more than 600 studies covering almost 72 000 people from America, Scandinavia and elsewhere …
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13618450.700-how-one-in-five-have-given-up-smoking-.html
