No , 70% of people who smoke cigarettes report that they would like to quit if they thought they could . The success rate of quitting smoking when people try to go just cold turkey , just quit with no assistance whatsoever . They might tell their family and friends .
And the success rates are incredibly high when one considers that normally it would be only a 5% success rate . The success rate with this particular hypnosis developed at Stanford School of Medicine by Doctor David Spiegel is 23% of people who do this hypnosis one time succeed in quitting smoking now , in the old days , which actually wasn't that long ago , uh before the advent of smartphones and before the internet took off to the extent that it has . Now this was done by having someone come into the clinic and doctor Spiegel himself or one of his colleagues would take somebody through the hypnosis .
And again , this is a prescription drug , a board certified psychiatrist or other physician is going to have to prescribe it for you if it's appropriate for you . And it moves that number of 5% success rate to about what one sees with the clinical hypnosis to about 20% of people will successfully overcome their nicotine or I should say their smoking or vaping addiction . Now , it's important to ask why this would work , right ?
It , um , as I mentioned it , it , uh , lowers libido , it disrupts hormones , it disrupts vascular function , brain function does all these terrible things and yet most people who try and quit simply can't . And of the 5% that succeed in quitting a full 65% of them relapse within a year . So that's a very depressing picture .
Does that mean that cigarette smoking is fairly easy to quit for most people . No , 70% of people who smoke cigarettes report that they would like to quit if they thought they could . The success rate of quitting smoking when people try to go just cold turkey , just quit with no assistance whatsoever .