Rutgers Collaboration Aimed at Individual Ways to Help Smokers Quit

A collaborative research project involving Rutgers University focuses on how to help smokers quit, according to the University.

The Rutgers’ Tobacco Dependence Program clinic, consisting of Rutgers experts from Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, the School of Public Health and the Department of Psychology in the School of Arts and Sciences, is studying the habits of smokers and help determine how each individual can quit.

The research focuses on a how impulsive and persistent a smoker is, as well as how the individual reacts to tobacco advertising. It also examines if the person has used electronic cigarettes, according to the University.

There are a total of 250 subjects, and the program is funded by the Cancer Institute.

Plans for the study began at the same time talks were underway to merge Rutgers with the University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey (UMDNJ).

One person who has participated in the study, Marika O’Rourke, previously used the drug Zyban to quit. She quit for nine months. She is now participating in the study and has been cigarette-free for six months so far, according to the University.