How Addictive Can Cigarettes Be? Two Case Reports

Abstract

The addiction literature contains numerous case reports of individuals dependent on a range of chemical substances, but strong dependence on cigarettes has not been similarly documented. This report attempts to fill this gap by describing two exceptionally dependent smokers. Both suffer with a smoking-related disease and have a very strong motivation to quit. Despite receiving intensive behavioural and pharmacological treatments to help them stop smoking, they have been unable to maintain even a short period of abstinence. The two cases provide reference examples for the assertion that while not all smokers are hopelessly hooked, some are. Such illustrative cases may stimulate research into the area of individual differences in cigarette dependence.

What Proportion of People Who Try One Cigarette Become Daily Smokers? A Meta-Analysis of Representative Surveys

“…A substantial proportion of smokers continue to smoke despite professing a desire to quit [2][3], and those attempting to quit face more than a 90% probability that they will return to smoking within a year [4]. In some smokers, the activity acquires all the characteristics of extreme dependence [5].…”