The Impact of Brief Motivational Counseling for Smoking Cessation in an Italian Emergency Department: a Randomized Controlled Trial

"It is a structured brief counselling perfomed by nurse who takes clinical care of the patient and it is performed as follow:~1. ASK: every patient should be asked whether he/she is or is not a smoker;~2. ADVICE: the patient is advised to quit in a strong, clear and personalized way;~3. ASSESS: the patient is asked if he/she would like to quit and the strenght of his/her dependence is assessed.~4. ASSIST: The smoker interested in quitting are assisted in their attempts, for example by helping them to define a quit date, by advising them about strategies against withdrawal symptoms and by providing them information material; patients are asked whether they want to be contacted by the CTT.~5. ARRANGE: this step is only addressed to the patients who have started a treatment in the CTT and is expected to prevent or treat eventual relapses."