Abstract
The article reviews various scales to assess level of symptoms induced by cessation of cigarette smoking, such as withdrawal, craving, and urge, placing importance on the simultaneous evaluation of the craving and urge to smoke along with the nicotine dependence and withdrawal degree.
In Europe and the United States, the withdrawal, craving, and urge have been regarded as the factor that disturbs the smoking cessation, causing the lapse and relapse. Researchers have focused on those three fac-tors not only in the support for smoking cessation but also in the clinical therapy for the same purpose. Thus they have been collecting data based on the three scales : Minnesota Nicotine Withdrawal Scale(MNWS), Questionnaire on Smoking Urges(QSU), Mood and Physical Symptoms Scale(MPSS), in addition to the nicotine dependence degree.
In Japan, however, the support for smoking cessation has been carried out focusing only on the level of nicotine dependence degree. Thus it is important to assess other factors employed in Europe and the United States. Furthermore, to support those who try to cease smoking and to offer them custom-made coping strate-gies, recognizing the symptoms due to the smoking cessation would be increasingly crucial in the near fu-ture.
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