Smoking in Bipolar Disorder Patients: the 3 A's Intervention at Community Mental Health

• Published in: European psychiatry Vol. 30; p. 550
• Main Authors: Sarramea Crespo, F, Rico del Viejo, A.B, Osuna Carmona, M.I, Toledano García, M.D, Notario Madueño, M.J, Gómez Moreno, C, Alcalá Partera, J, Millán Aguilar, V, Gutiérrez-Rojas, L
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Masson SAS 28-03-2015
• Subjects: Internal Medicine; Psychiatry
• ISSN: 0924-9338; 1778-3585
• DOI: 10.1016/S0924-9338(15)30434-X

Introduction It is necessary to explore the possibilities of brief intervention of smoking cessation in bipolar disorder (BD) that may act on the level of motivation for change. Objectives Assess the effectiveness of the 3 A's intervention (Ask, Advise and Assess) in a sample of euthymic BD patients. Methods 260 patients diagnosed with BD that were in the euthymic phase and attended the Community care centers of Spain that have been evaluated for their history of smoking habits and current use. Patients who consumed in the last month qualified for the level of motivation for change (measured by URICA scale); before and after conducting a brief intervention of no more than 30 minutes in total, divided in three contacts during a month, two face to face and one phone contact. Results The 49% of the evaluated patients showed an actual use of cigarettes with an average of 28.73 (SD 11.82) years of consumption, with a mean consumption of 21.00 (SD 10.40) cigarettes per day and a level of nicotine dependency of 5.72 (SD 3.03). The 67% of patients were in the Contemplation stage of change, after the intervention 18% progressed to the stage of motivation and 14% ended up in the Stage of Ready for Change. In the third appointment the 21.4% of the smokers reported a reduction of the consumption. Conclusions The results seem to confirm its effectiveness, although it should be considered the possibility of carrying out specific tools of brief intervention for this sort of patients.