Counseling Cures

The name of this blog entry is What Medications Are Recommended for Adolescents Who Are Quitting Smoking? It's author is Donna M. D'Alessandro, MD and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital. The focus of this blog entry is to channel focus on adolescent smokers and which method of quitting is most effective. The blog follows a 17-year-old male who is an athlete, but also is a light smoker whose parents are asking him to quit. He had only been smoking a few cigarettes a day for the past three months, and was unsure if it was affecting his athletics. After a patient evaluation, the male was diagnosed as a healthy male athlete and recent smoker. The health counsler suggested he receive help through counseling.

Of all methods used to quit smoking, counseling is most recommended by pediatricians for adolescents. Not only is counseling more effective than other methods, but it is medication-free. This leaves the patient not dependent on other medicine in place of nicotine. I believe this blog entry was intended for parents of adolescent smokers or friends of adolescent smokers. The author's tone remains calm throughout the article. She expresses that while the health of new smokers is not in immediate danger that it will be in the future if they do not receive proper treatment soon. The author also explains that "..adolescents enrolled in tobacco cessation programs are 2 times more likely to quit and remain abstinent." This blog interested me because the patient evaluation of the young male showed no dangerous signs to his health. It is clear that short term effects of smoking are small, yet the long term effects of smoking can be fatal.