Doctors Reluctant to Prescribe E-Cigarettes

Not all doctors and nurses are enthusiastic about England’s intention to let physicians prescribe e-cigarettes to smokers, reports Daily Mail.

A yet-to-be-published study, involving the University of Oxford, which interviewed 11 medical staff, found most struggled to advise long-term use of e-cigarettes because of concerns about unknown long-term effects.

A survey commissioned by Cancer Research UK two years ago indicates that two in five English nurses and doctors would feel uncomfortable recommending e-cigarettes to smokers and one in six would never do so.

General practitioners “find it difficult handing patients something which may cause them harm, even where e-cigarettes are far safer than cigarettes… They struggle to give people devices which may not be entirely safe or may perpetuate addiction to nicotine,” said Paul Aveyard, professor of behavioral medicine at the University of Oxford, who was involved in both pieces of research.

Martin Marshall of the Royal College of general practitioners urged more investment in community smoking cessation centers. “’Vaping should only be seen as a way to give up smoking, with the intention to then give up vaping,” he said.

Simon Capewell, professor of clinical epidemiology at Liverpool University, called the Department of Health plan for prescription e-cigarettes deeply worrying.

“England is out on a dangerous limb,” he said. “Officials here have fallen for the exaggerated claims of the pro-vaping lobby, and are ignoring the health risks. The main claim, that e-cigarettes are a major aid to quitting, is wrong. If that were true, why would the multinational tobacco corporations be pushing vaping so hard?”