By the NORWOOD NEWS 

Vital Stats:  60% of people living with HIV in the U.S. smoke

Though HIV is known to permanently weaken the human body’s immune system, producing a lifestyle filled with mandatory exercise and pill treatment, trends indicate those diagnosed with the fatal disease continue to smoke cigarettes. 

“Approximately 60 percent of individuals living with HIV in the United States are smokers … and the majority are interested in quitting,” said Jonathan Shuter, M.D., director of clinical research, Montefiore AIDS Center and professor of Clinical Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.

It’s because of this that Montefiore Medical Center created a study entitled “Positively Smoke Free” (PSF) to assist HIV-infected individuals in giving up the urge to smoke. “I lead the development of this trial because new treatments have improved AIDS outcomes and, now my patients are dying of heart disease, strokes and lung cancer, which are often associated with smoking,” said Shuter. “When your life is complicated by health, social and environmental stressors and when you live in a community where it is common to smoke, you need added support and education to help you stop.”

The PSF program employs cognitive behavioral therapy to conduct eight 90-minute sessions with groups consisting of 6 to 8 patients. The study doubled the results of individuals who stopped smoking after therapy.

When the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) recognized the potential for this program, it gave Montefiore a $3.7 million grant to continue research and run trial programs.

The goal of this program is to have 450 patients in the next three and a half years. In addition to testing new methods of getting HIV-infected smokers to quit, it will investigate characteristics that lead to patients successfully quitting. Patients will be observed for six months at the end of therapy to confirm whether they’ve actually quit smoking by testing their carbon monoxide levels.

Traditional information given to HIV-infected individuals about smoking has not helped them quit. For this reason, HIV-infected smokers are at risk for more diseases such as heart disease, strokes and lung cancer. Two sites at Montefiore will be using the grant money to test individuals with this new program and help HIV-infected smokers get the education and resources that they need to quit smoking.

Source: Montefiore Medical Center