Chronic chest disease, personality, and success in stopping cigarette smoking.

The subjects were 120 patients (75 male, 45 female) with chronic respiratory symptoms attending the respiratory clinic at Manchester Royal Infirmary. The majority had airways obstruction, most commonly in relation to chronic bronchitis and allergic asthma. The mean period of attendance was 19 months (range 0 to 5 years). Four patients were included at their first visit to the clinic. They knew that chest disease had been diagnosed by the physician and the cigarette smokers had been advised to stop smoking at some time since the development of their chronic respiratory symptoms by both the referring and the clinic doctors.