GUERRA, Marina Prista. A abstenção tabágica: Reflexões sobre a recaída. []. , 22, 3, pp.507-518. ISSN 0870-8231.

During the last years, a lot of attention has been given to hard drugs, as they diminish the quality of life of their users, interfere negatively in the everyday activities and social order, and mainly because of their direct relation with several infectious diseases, such as AIDS and Hepatitis C. This growing preoccupations, have concentrated the majority of research efforts in the drug users and in the associated phenomena of social insecurity, leaving to a secondary stage other legally authorized addictions, such as the use of tranquillizers and antidepressants, alcohol and tobacco. Nevertheless, tobacco use has been recognized as one of the leading worldwide public health problems and, based on the available statistics, causes deterioration of the quality of life and premature death of the smoking population, being often associated with the use of other drugs. The carefully undertaken studies of the nicotine influence in the human being at the biological, psychological and social levels are of paramount importance in the intervention for smoking cessation, reinforced by the influence of nicotine in the absorption of other products both natural and toxic. Until very recently, tobacco use was studied merely as a habit, which should be discontinued, simply dependent for that purpose almost entirely on one's will. However recent discoveries of a positive influence of nicotine in certain diseases, has open the way for other researches, reinforcing the addictive power of this drug, mainly based on the perception that the majority of former smokers have had several relapses, making long-term smoking cessation extremely difficult. This article intends to clarify some of the psychological, social and psycho-physiological aspects related to the unsuccess of long-term smoking cessation. The psycho-pharmacological effects of smoking, leading to a different explanation for the future intervention in tobacco use, as well as to new research fields, will be also reinforced.

: Smoking; nicotine; psychopharmacology; cessation; relapse.

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