Genetic testing: the future of smoking cessation therapy?

In the UK, approximately one-third of the population currently smoke. It is estimated that up to 70% of these smokers want to stop smoking but smoking cessation rates currently only stand at 20-30%. In order to reduce the health burden associated with smoking in the short-term we need to increase cessation rates. This will stem from deeper understanding of the processes involved in nicotine addiction, targeted therapy and the development of new pharmacological cessation agents. This article is not intended to be an exhaustive examination of nicotine addiction but rather an overview of some of the genetic aspects and how we can go on to use this knowledge in order to develop a genetic test to aid smoking cessation.