Quitting smoking at an older age
Can a 60-year-old who has been smoking for 45 years quit smoking?
An optimistic answer would be: maybe. However, standard support programmes involving weekly counselling and motivational sessions over a period of twelve weeks appear to have had little effect a year later. This is not surprising, because a lot happens in the brain of someone who quits abruptly. The amygdala fires more intensely, leading to anxiety. Depression lurks, because the dopamine system, which is important for experiencing pleasure, now only responds to nicotine. If you do manage to go without smoking for a while, the hypersensitive nicotine receptors in your brain cause an irresistible craving for cigarettes.
But there is hope.
Additional support with a medication that affects the nicotine receptors leads to an increase in the percentage of successful quitters. Offering support in a social context, especially when combined with a temporary financial reward, also leads to a higher percentage. And who knows, a combination of money and medication could push the percentage of successful quitters above 50%.
If that still does not work in individual cases, there are other perspectives. For example, it has been found that many smokers no longer feel the need to smoke after damage to their insula, and it is now possible to influence the activity of insula brain cells without causing damage.
Leon Kenemans, Professor of Biopsychology and Human Psychopharmacology