Physician Recommends Against Quitting Smoking for Smokers Who Do Not Want to Use NRT or Cessation Drugs; Hides Conflict of Interest

An article in the Annals of Family Medicine argues that smokers who do not wish to use nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), varenicline, or other drugs should be counseled by their physicians not to quit smoking. Specifically, these patients should not be encouraged to try to quit using e-cigarettes. Moreover, the article scares physicians into thinking that if they do encourage smoking cessation via e-cigarettes, they are putting themselves into legal danger.

According to the lead author - Dr. Adam Goldstein of the University of North Carolina - e-cigarettes are dangerous and have not shown to be helpful in smoking cessation and should therefore not be recommended to patients. If they are recommended, he argues, physicians face legal risks:

"the ethical duty of medicine is to do no harm. Jumping from the 10th floor of a burning building rather than the 15th floor offers no real benefit. If a clinician recommends penicillin for a resistant infection in the face of more effective therapy, they would face an uncertain defense in front of their colleagues or courts. For clinicians that do recommend ENDS, do they document such in the medical record? Given the rise in medical lawsuits related to ENDS side effects or injuries, until such time that medical evidence supports ENDS safety and effectiveness, and robust regulatory frameworks exist, clinicians who recommend ENDS to patients in favor of more effective and safe products may face medico-legal risks."

The authors also argue that e-cigarettes should not be recommended to subgroups of smokers: "Some clinicians may be tempted to recommend ENDS for certain subgroups of smokers, but this approach is problematic."

They specifically advise physicians to recommend that asthmatic smokers keep on smoking rather than attempt to quit using e-cigarettes: "It is problematic to recommend ENDS for asthmatic tobacco users, as immediate reduction in lung function is observed when using ENDS."

The Rest of the Story

By advising physicians not to recommend e-cigarettes for smoking cessation, this article is actually advising them to recommend that smokers who don't want to quit using FDA-approved methods should continue smoking, rather than trying to quit by switching to vaping.

This is a dangerous and misguided recommendation that is completely non-evidence-based and which is destructive to the health of patients by discouraging them from quitting smoking unless the quit using a particular method favored by the physician.

I cannot emphasize strongly enough that if a patient is not interested in quitting using NRT or another drug, he or she should be advised to find some other method of quitting, including e-cigarettes. That patient should not be thrown under the bus, as is being recommended in this article. Better that the patient attempt to quit using e-cigarettes than not try to quit at all. Moreover, if the patient expresses particular interest in e-cigarettes and a disdain for or previous failure with FDA-approved therapies, he or she should be strongly advised to go for it. Millions of ex-smokers have successfully quit using vaping products and there is no justification for promoting continued smoking over a quit attempt with e-cigarettes.

Not only is the medical recommendation in the article misguided and damaging, but the evidence presented to support it is highly biased and incomplete. The paper cites research which identified potential risks of vaping but fails to cite any of the many articles which have documented the significant benefits associated with switching to e-cigarettes.

For example, the paper cites two articles which found sub-clinical increases in airways resistance among e-cigarette users, but failed to cite two other articles which documented significant improvement in lung function among asthmatic smokers. The recommendation against asthmatic smokers trying to quit using e-cigarettes ignores solid evidence that asthmatic smokers experience dramatic improvement in their respiratory symptoms and clinical lung function if they are able to switch to e-cigarettes.

The paper also fails to cite the most important study of all: the one and only clinical trial conducted on e-cigarettes, which happened to find that these products are just as effective as the nicotine patch for smoking cessation.

Unfortunately, the bias apparent in the paper has the appearance of being related to an unreported conflict of interest. Specifically, the lead author - Dr. Goldstein - failed to disclose that he has received funding from Big Pharma; in particular, funding from a company that makes Chantix, for which e-cigarettes are a major market competitor. It is imperative that a physician who publishes a medical recommendation like this disclose any relevant conflicts of interest, especially prior funding from a company that stands to benefit tremendously from the recommendation being made.

By his own acknowledgment, Dr. Goldstein has received research funding from Pfizer, the maker of Chantix. Pfizer certainly stands to gain financially from the recommendation that physicians discourage patients from using e-cigarettes to quit. So this conflict should have been disclosed. It appears that Dr. Goldstein received a $500,000 grant from Pfizer from 2010-2012. I think that a half million dollar grant from a corporation which stands to gain financially from the medical recommendation made in the article is something that readers deserve being made aware of.

Elsewhere, Dr. Goldstein acknowledges that he has served on advisory boards for Pfizer and for Boehringer Pharmaceuticals. In addition, the UNC Nicotine Dependence Program, of which Dr. Goldstein is listed as a member, has received funding from Pfizer.