Commentary on: Wechsler PM, Liberman AL, Restifo D, Abramson EL, Navi BB, Kamel H, Parikh NS. Cost-Effectiveness of Smoking Cessation Interventions in Patients With Ischemic Stroke and Transient Ischemic Attack. Stroke. 2023 Apr;54(4):992-1000. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.122.040356. Epub 2023 Mar 3.
Measures to promote smoking cessation should go beyond brief counselling to include intensive counselling with pharmacotherapeutic support, such as varenicline, which are cost-effective. Future research is needed to study to what extent the results obtained here are reproducible in other healthcare settings.
Smoking cessation in stroke survivors is associated with a reduction in vascular events and death.