The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has updated its Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, including with new information specifically addressed to individuals in the European Economic Area. As described in the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, this website utilizes cookies, including for the purpose of offering an optimal online experience and services tailored to your preferences.

Please read the entire Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. By closing this message, browsing this website, continuing the navigation, or otherwise continuing to use the APA's websites, you confirm that you understand and accept the terms of the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use, including the utilization of cookies.

×
Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1176/ajp.128.10.1224

Physicians have been extremely successful in attempts to quit smoking cigarettes. On the basis of their psychological awareness and espousal of the reality principle, one might expect psychiatrists to be the most successful in changing this maladaptive behavior. But psychiatrists as a group are the physicians with the highest prevalence of cigarette smoking and the least success in quitting. In contrast, internists have been among the most successful. Survey data suggest that this disparity is related not to differences in cognitive awareness of risk or in denial of personal vulnerability but to differences in the degree of difficulty anticipated in quitting, the example-setting role, and exposure to the consequences of smoking in their patients.

Access content

To read the fulltext, please use one of the options below to sign in or purchase access.