Each year, about half of the 51 million cigarette smokers in North America try to kick the habit for at least a day. Yet a team of Canadian researchers notes that less than 50 percent of these people opt for drug-related aids like nicotine patches and gum because these aids either don’t work or have unpleasant side effects.

Noting that up to 40 percent of smokers are interested in alternative techniques to help them give up cigarettes, the researchers decided to determine the effectiveness of the three most-studied therapies:
1. Acupuncture;
2. Hypnosis;
3. Aversion therapy, in which people smoke as many as three cigarettes in three minutes.

The result? All three alternative therapies are scientifically proven to help you kick the habit; however, because there are no recent trials involving aversion therapy, that therapy is less conclusive.

“We recommend that practitioners administer acupuncture and hypnotherapy as an alternative to pharmacologic interventions to patients who prefer not to use conventional smoking cessation aids to quit smoking,” the researchers wrote.

To come to that conclusion they analyzed14 different randomized controlled trials involving about 1,200 adult smokers. The findings were published in the April 2012 issue of the American Journal of Medicine. Six of the trials used acupuncture, four used hypnotherapy and four used aversion techniques. 

The researchers found that, on average, smokers who underwent acupuncture were 3.5 times more likely than those who didn’t have the treatment to be tobacco-free between six and 12 months after the trials began. The success rate for hypnotherapy was 4.6 times, while the rate for aversion techniques was 4.2. In comparison, the researchers said evidence shows that smokers who opt for drug therapies are 2 to 2.5 times more likely to be successful at quitting than those who don’t use pharmaceuticals.

Researchers noted that the trials they studied raised questions about what type of acupuncture or hypnosis work best, and how many sessions are necessary. Nevertheless, they concluded that the trials as a whole show that alternative therapies may help smokers quit.