What do rates of unsuccessful attempts to quit vaping tell us? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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If you’ve been using electronic cigarettes and attempt to quit but can’t, are you addicted? That’s one interpretation of a recent study among US youth, showing that since the introduction of e-cigarettes more unsuccessful quit attempts have been seen. Michael Blaha, an anti-smoking advocate and cardiologist at Johns Hopkins, says he’s persuaded.

Blaha: I do think that unsuccessful quit attempts are a metric of increasing addiction to nicotine. But of course we do want people to try to quit using their nicotine products so in that sense, more people trying to quit is a good thing. But we’re obviously failing in supporting our patients and individuals in the community in succeeding to quit, and this is in part because there are very few strategies out there for informing people who use e-cigarettes or vape, on the most successful strategies for quitting.  :29

Blaha says it’s unclear whether quitting strategies for traditional cigarettes will work for e-cigarettes. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.