Talk:Allen Carr

Citation

We need a citation that Carr was a "five pack per day" smoker. This means that if he were awake for 16 hours a day, he would smoke more than 6 cigarettes in an hour. Is there a reliable source for this information? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.202.69.141 (talk) 02:41, 1 April 2009 (UTC)

would his book count as a citation? Or does it need to be someone other than the subjects own work? btw - his method really did work for me. If you want to quit smoking read the damn book! 94.193.10.120 (talk) 15:13, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

I understand that Carr has also got a worldwide network of clinics (see his own web site). It might be interesting to learn what they are for if the book is so good that it made so many people stop smoking for good. |l'KF'l| 10:46, Aug 17, 2004 (UTC)

Allen Carr is not a miracle worker by any means: he does introduce a smoker to a new way of understanding their actions and their addiction. Some people may respond better to hearing the information through a clinic; others by reading the book in the privacy of their own homes. Personally, I smoked for 18 years and was smoking around 30 per day before I read the Easyway book. With the new way of looking at my smoking that Allen Carr's book taught me, it gave me a belief that I could give up where before I really though it would never happen. It is VERY important to remember this will not work for everyone: it did for me and you must want to give up. Darren, UK. (Non-Smoker since 4th June 2004) 8th March 2006

His book certainly worked for me. Went from about 30 per day to none at all overnight and I hadn't even wanted to quit all that much (was making a half-hearted attempt to quit to support a friend who was quitting). Now obviously I'm really glad I read the book :) Coolug (talk) 12:23, 4 February 2009 (UTC)

POV and NOR

There were some issues with the article regarding Wikipedia:No_original_research: unless someone can come up with a citation for there being "comparatively more" people claiming success via Allen Carr's methods, it does not merit inclusion. Same for the claimed 80-90% success rate.

Furthermore, the graf which addresses the philosophy of Carr's program suffers from POV bias (and/or NOR, Verifiability)...again, unless someone can come up with citations for the claims within, some of which were stated as fact rather than as claims, assertions, etc. Wikipedia:Neutral_point_of_view

Nothing against Carr, and in fact, he has my sympathies. My father died of lung cancer almost a year ago, and I lost a friend to it this summer...and I myself am trying to quit! Snackycakes 18:13, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree; his website shows none of the scientific studies that he claims, so therefore can not be a reliable source. 69.123.131.5 02:12, 3 May 2007 (UTC)sean

If memory serves, the 80-90% is based on the number of people who claimed their money back after paying for one of the clinic based sessions and deciding it hadn't worked.

His book 'Scandal' (free to download in pdf form from the allen carr website) sheds more light on the research side of things - page 34 onwards. He says placebo based scientific trials are fine for drugs, but are not really suited to what are essentially psychological treatments. For instance, he asks what the placebo would be to compare against a clinic based session. What the alternatives might be he does not say and I do not have any idea myself. Perhaps there are valid methods in use by the Psychology community which could provide better information.

He cites 2 studies from a Professor Manfred Neuberger, who he says heads the Department of Preventive Medicine at the Institute of Environmental Health in Vienna’s University of Medicine. The first study was of 515 employees of a steel plant in Austria who had all taken part in one of the six-hour seminars. After three years, 510 agreed to be interviewed. Of these, 262 (51.4%) were still not smoking. Urine samples were taken to measure their cotinine (this is a metabolite of nicotine) levels and these suggested the quitters were telling the truth. Another study gave a range of 40-55% success after 1 year where the participants had had one EasyWay session at work.

He compares this against NRT. Meta analysis was conducted on 12 trials involving a total of 2408 people using NRT and 2384 using placebo and where responses were taken after 1 year and then a longer term of between 2-8 years. This revealed that 18% of the NRT people said they were not smoking after a year, compared to 10% of those who had used the placebo. Over the longer term (8 years), this dropped to 12% for NRT and 8% for the placebo. This suggests that the difference in the long term between NRT and placebo is just 4%.

I recommend reading his book Scandal anyhow (it's free for a start) which is the last thing he wrote and so the most up to date. And just to clarify, I stopped smoking having read his book for the second time on 9th May 2005 and haven't smoked since, not bad after 16 years averaging 20 a day. And as he promises, it was unbelievably easy. Yappaty 15:50, 30 June 2007 (UTC)

At the very least, shouldn't the 53% statistic (percentage of people who remain non-smokers after 1 year) be removed or given a "citation needed" designation? The article referenced in the footnote is simply an open letter to Tony Blair, which in no way constitutes verification. 68.73.243.231 15:45, 26 October 2007 (UTC)

Another problem with POV in this article is the parenthetical addition to the section describing Carr's death. After we are told that Carr died of lung cancer, why is it necessary to explain that Carr allowed his patients to smoke during counseling sessions? This implies that his death was caused by second-hand smoke, but it's a leap in logic. His cancer could have just as easily been the result of his "31 years as a five-pack-per-day chain smoker," as mentioned earlier in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.85.37.0 (talk) 03:10, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

I do not understand what does it matter how he has success rates. If you get him, so stop smoking! I participated in the workshop of Alan Carr and I stopped smoking completely (after smoking a box and a half per day)? s.s. halevi, israel.

inconsistency

it is true that Carr smoked for 33 years because he mentions this several times in his book, but it says here that he started when he was 18 and ended when he was 48. Eugene-elgato (talk) 16:59, 13 October 2009 (UTC)