Tobacco in the Time of Vaping - Experiences From a Smoking Cessation Clinic
Tracks
Ballroom 1
Tuesday, May 13, 2025 |
11:00 AM - 11:30 AM |
Overview
Adam Pastor, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne
Speaker
Adam Pastor
Deputy Director
Department Addiction Medicine, St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne
Tobacco in the time of Vaping - experiences from a smoking cessation clinic
Abstract
While rates of tobacco use in the general population continue to fall they remain stubbornly high in those with severe mental health disorders and people with substance use disorders. Nicotine vaping products (vapes/e-cigarettes) had been touted as a solution to assist these groups and as a safer form of nicotine delivery for those not wishing to quit. However, their use to date in Australia has been skewed away from older tobacco dependent smokers and towards nicotine naive younger people. This has resulted in a younger cohort seeking assistance with vaping cessation and an older group considering commencing vaping to assist with reducing or quitting traditional tobacco. This talk will present background data on the evidence for benefit and harm of nicotine vaping products, a brief comparison compared to other traditional smoking cessation therapies, as well as outlining Australia’s current regulatory approach. We will then present cases from a Tobacco Cessation Clinic covering people both attempting to quit nicotine vaping products, their therapeutic use in tobacco cessation and everything in between.
Biography
Adam is an Addiction Medicine Physician and Deputy Director of the Department of Addiction Medicine St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He is a member of the Smoking and Vaping Cessation Professionals Special Interest Group of Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs. Adam helped establish the tobacco cessation clinic at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne. He has publications across Addiction using a mixture of quantitative, qualitative and randomised trial research designs. He peer reviews for journals, teaches students, and contributes to national guidelines regarding substance use treatment. He is also a Board Member for YSAS (Youth Support and Advocacy Service).