Smoking is one of the main causes of premature death worldwide. It is also an addiction that requires a difficult treatment. One approach that has been used to treat tobacco addiction is motivational interview, based on the transtheorical model proposed by Prochaska & Di Clemente. This study aims at performing a theoretical review concerning motivational stages of change and the use of brief motivational interview in smokers. The results obtained from some of the most important studies on the subject conducted in Europe and in the USA are presented here. These results indicate that, although brief motivational interview shows good outcomes concerning the treatment of addictive behaviors when compared with other categories of intervention, such success does not seem to apply to the results found in the treatment of smoking.
Motivational interview; treatment; smoking; motivational stages