Healio: E-Cigarettes Have Uncertain Role For Smoking Cessation

PHILADELPHIA — The role e-cigarettes play on tobacco dependence, the morbidity and potentially mortality from tobacco is “unclear,” a speaker said at the American College of Physicians Internal Medicine Meeting. Frank T. Leone, MD, MS, director of comprehensive smoking treatment programs and professor of medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania pointed to several studies to explain his point. “A recent randomized trial that put electronic e-cigarettes directly into the hands of the smoking population to see what these people would do found 18% put the traditional cigarette down vs. 10% who were exposed to the patch,” he told attendees. “Another recent meta-analysis found that e-cigarettes made it harder to quit smoking, but the data used was very weak.” Read more at Healio