Three More Indications of Motivating the Smokers to Stop Smoking
OP Kapoor
The following are the three extremely common
illnesses, where the patient should be very strongly motivated to give up smoking completely and permanently. These are:
COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease)
IHD (Ischaemic Heart Disease)
Peptic Ulcer Disease
I would now like to draw the attention of the physicians to three more illnesses where smoking is prohibited and should be discontinued. They are:
CRF (Chronic Renal Failure) Such patients are also given statins, in addition to motivating them to stop smoking.
Graves’ disease It is well known that the ophthalmic complications of Graves’ disease do not respond to any treatment and follow their own course. But chances of developing ophthalmic Graves’ disease increase if the patient continues to smoke.
Crohn’s disease.
Ex. Hon. Physician, Jaslok Hospital and Bombay Hospital, Mumbai, Ex. Hon. Prof. of Medicine, Grant Medical College and JJ Hospital, Mumbai 400 008.
ANTENATAL STEROIDS REDUCE RESPIRATORY DISTRESS IN BABIES
Antenatal steroids and delaying delivery until 39 weeks reduce respiratory distress in babies born by elective caesarean section. Stutchfield and colleagues randomised nearly 1000 women from 10 maternity units in Wales to receive two intramuscular doses of 12 mg of betamethasone 48 hours before delivery or to get usual care. Fewer children from mothers who had had betamethasone were admitted to a special care baby unit with respiratory distress. The rate of such admission fell with increasing gestation, supporting the recommendation to delay elective section until 39 weeks.
BMJ, 2005; 331 : 662.
ANTENATAL STEROIDS MAY HAVE NO LONG TERM SIDE EFFECTS
Another study looks at the long term effects of antenatal exposure to betamethasone and finds that a single course does not alter psychological functioning in adult life. Dalziel and colleagues followed up 192 babies of mothers in the Auckland, New Zealand steroid trial conducted in the early 1970s. An editorial by Steer however, warns that although the immediate benefits of antenatal steroids in reducing respiratory distress are clear, the long term effects of repeated courses continue to be debated.
