Kicking the Smoking Habit

A characteristic common to many habitual cigarette smokers is that they would like to stop but can't. A recent experiment conducted at London's Mauds-ley Hospital by Psychiatrist M.A. Hamilton Russell suggests that the tobacco smoker can be literally shocked out of his habit. To a sample group of 14 heavy smokers, Russell administered electric jolts at some point during the smoking process. The results were as electrifying as the treatment. After an average of eleven sessions, nine of the 14 had given up smoking; three later relapsed into the habit, but six were still off cigarettes at the end of one year.

Russell's experiment is another application of what psychologists call aversion therapy. It has been tried, with limited success, on homosexuals, alcoholics and drug addicts--though in all cases the treatment is extremely unpleasant. A heroin addict, for instance, is given a drug (Scoline) that seriously impairs his ability to breathe. Just before the drug takes effect, he gets his usual dose of heroin. After several such harrowing experiences, he presumably kicks his habit.

Because Psychiatrist Russell limited his study to only 14 heavy smokers, its results cannot be considered conclusive. Moreover, Russell recommends the treatment only for those with a strong desire to stop. "Depression," he says in his laconic report on the experiment, "was the most troublesome side effect" --one that affected more than half of his subjects. One of his subjects, in fact, fell into such a suicidal funk at being electrically deprived of the urge to smoke that Russell sensibly dismissed her from the course.

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