Tobacco addiction as a psychiatric disease.

Tobacco is the most widely used addictive substance in the world. Since the Surgeon General's 1964 report, medicine has sought out the genesis of tobacco addiction (TA) and has evolved methods of treatment and prevention. Psychiatry was slower than other medical specialties to acknowledge TA as a legitimate area for psychiatric intervention, probably because the many psychiatrists who were smokers identified with their smoking patients. Since 1980, the American Psychiatric Association has recognized nicotine dependence and nicotine withdrawal as diagnostic entities. The complications of TA are in the province of other medical specialists, but psychiatrists have unique tools for treating addictive disorders. This paper describes some of the addictive qualities of tobacco, and presents illustrative cases of successful treatment of TA using hypnosis. It describes an effective cooperative community program under medical aegis, focusing on education, therapy, and prevention, which has resulted in the virtual disappearance of tobacco consumption in hospitals and schools in the community. By sharing their expertise in the treatment of individual patients, and the design of effective community programs that include education, prevention, and treatment, psychiatrists will be active leaders in the medical community's program to reduce tobacco addiction.