Sustained Care Smoking Cessation Intervention for Individuals Hospitalized for Psychiatric Disorders: The Helping HAND 3 Randomized Clinical Trial

RCT (n=353 Austin, Texas) found a sustained care smoking cessation intervention yielded greater treatment engagement and abstinence at 6 months following discharge than usual care (8.9% vs 3.5%; aOR, 2.95; 95% CI, 1.24-6.99; p = 0.01) in adults smokers with severe mental illness.

SPS commentary:

The usual care intervention involved brief smoking cessation information, self-help materials and advice from the admitting nurse, and an offer to provide nicotine replacement therapy during hospitalization.

The sustained care smoking cessation intervention included 4 main components designed to facilitate patient engagement with postdischarge smoking cessation resources: (1) inpatient motivational counselling; (2) free transdermal nicotine patches on discharge; (3) an offer of free postdischarge telephone quitline, text-based, and/or web-based smoking cessation counseling, and (4) postdischarge automated interactive voice response calls or text messages.

JAMA Psychiatry