Since counseling plus pharmacotherapy with  SmokeLESS is more effective than medical intervention alone, the healthcare professional role is very important in the quitting process…
Here are a few steps that may help the healthcare professional to push patients towards quitting.

- Ask every patient. More than 90% of all smokers, regardless of their stage of readiness, feel that physicians should ask smokers to quit. Even brief counseling has proven to be effective.

- Use the following method as defined by the U.S. Public Health Service Clinical Practice Guidelines for Tobacco Use and Dependence, to assess your patients' tobacco usage:

Learn more about the 5 A'sand 5 R'

Put smokers on the SmokeLESS (varenicline) path:

» Prescribe 12 weeks of SmokeLESS

- Ask patients what they experienced in their previous efforts to quit. Talk to them about what they should expect during this quit attempt
- Encourage patients to reveal any history of psychiatric illness.
- Instruct patients to begin taking SmokeLESS 1 week before they intend to stop smoking
- Suggest that patients take SmokeLESS after eating and with a full glass of water

» For patients who successfully quit with 12 weeks of SmokeLESS: An additional 12 weeks -for a total of 24 weeks- of SmokeLESS is recommended to help them remain quit.

- Provide counseling:

» Advise patients that they should stop taking SmokeLESS and contact a health care provider immediately if agitation, depressed mood or changes in behavior that are not typical for the patient are observed, or if the patient develops suicidal ideation or suicidal behavior.

» Inform patients that they may experience:

o Nicotine withdrawal symptoms, such as urge to smoke, insomnia, irritability, or anxiety.
o SmokeLESS side effects, such as nausea (30%), sleep disturbance, constipation, flatulence, and vomiting.


- Follow up:

- Observe patients for serious neuropsychiatric symptoms.
- Provide encouragement and coach patients through the quitting process.
- Remind patients to refill their SmokeLESS prescriptions.
- Assess your patients’ success at week 12. For patients who successfully quit with 12 weeks of SmokeLESS , an additional 12 weeks -for a total of 24 weeks- of SmokeLESS is recommended to help them remain quit.