Aversion Therapy

Effectiveness: Possibly up to 10% (1 in 10)

Aversion therapy for smoking has not been shown conclusively to be effective, but it may be worth further research.

Aversion treatments pair undesirable behaviours with negative sensations. In smoking cessation, several approaches have been suggested such as rapid smoking, which requires smokers to take a puff every few seconds to make smoking unpleasant. The results of the existing trials suggest that this may be effective, but the evidence is not conclusive because most of the studies of this approach have methodological problems. A recent laboratory study also suggests that the method has an active ingredient. Further research may be worthwhile.