In an effort to reduce levels of smoking in the UK, the medicines regulator has approved a brand of e-cigarette to be marketed as an aid to help people stop smoking. 
The decision means e-Voke, produced by British American Tobacco, could be prescribed on the NHS, reports the BBC.
While Public Health England claims cigarettes are far less harmful than tobacco and help smokers quit, some experts, including the British Medical Association, say the benefits and harms are not yet known since e-cigarettes are still relatively new.
And the Royal College of GPs said doctors would be reluctant to hand them out to patients without clear merits. It is reported that around 10m UK adults – one in five – smoke cigarettes.
Many of these would like to or are actively trying to kick the habit and an increasing number are turning to e-cigarettes, the NHS says.
But, for those who want to stop smoking, the easier and most successful way is through hypnotherapy.
The National Council for Hypnotherapy, the largest not-for-profit professional hypnotherapists’ body in the UK, has more than 1800 therapists on its directory and all are highly trained and qualified to help people quit smoking .
Hypnotherapy is an evidence-based therapy, with over 70,000 research references worldwide, but which is often misunderstood by the public.
Says the NCH: “It is important to understand that hypnotherapy is not a magic pill. It requires that the client be committed to change and prepared to make the effort to make that change a reality.”
In essence, hypnotherapy can help people to make changes in their behaviour. It cannot force them to make any changes against their will.
People who see a hypnotherapist to stop smoking might find, through the therapist, that they started the habit within a peer group situation.
“Often this stems from our desire to blend in, to become part of a group, and of course in evolutionary terms we need to be accepted by a group as our protection comes from being within groups – that is how we evolved and survived,” says the NCH.
While Professor Kevin Fenton, National Director of Health and Wellbeing, Public Health England, says e-cigarettes have become the most popular quitting aid in England, Dr Tim Ballard of the Royal College of GPs said it would be unreasonable for the NHS to be asked to fund lifestyle choices for people.
“Potentially, there may be a place for the prescription of e-Voke as part of a smoking cessation programme, but GPs would be very wary of prescribing them until there was clear evidence of their safety and of their efficacy in helping people to quit,” he told the BBC.
“At the moment there isn’t the evidence and the guidance hasn’t been written to help GPs make those decisions.”
Finally, Deborah Arnott of Action on Smoking and Heath (ASH) said: “Electronic cigarettes are a much safer alternative source of nicotine for smokers than cigarettes, but that doesn’t mean they are risk-free and we would discourage anyone who’s not a smoker from using them.”