This Special Communication from a working group of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) Treatment Research Network summarizes evidence on nicotine e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool and provides clinical guidance for incorporating them into shared decision-making conversations with adult patients who smoke.
The working group issues one overarching recommendation: clinicians should integrate e-cigarettes into discussions of the risks and benefits of all evidence-based pharmacologic smoking cessation treatments, noting that nicotine e-cigarettes are more effective for cessation than FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapies and are less harmful than cigarettes.
This is a position/consensus manuscript rather than a primary study, so no original efficacy or safety data are generated. Guidance is directed at adult smokers only and may not apply to youth or non-smokers. Misperception prevalence among clinicians is noted but not formally quantified in this document.
Clinicians should routinely include nicotine e-cigarettes in shared decision-making conversations about smoking cessation options alongside other FDA-approved therapies. Addressing common misperceptions about e-cigarette harms — even among clinicians — is an explicit part of the recommended approach.
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