Peter Hajek is a British psychologist. He is professor of

clinical psychology Clinical psychology is an integration of social science, theory, and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and persona ...

and director of the

Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine , mottoeng = Temper the bitter things in life with a smile , parent = Queen Mary University of London , president = Lord Mayor of London , head_label = Warden , head = Mark Caulfield , students = 3,410 , undergrad = 2,23 ...

's Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at

Queen Mary University of London , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...

. He is known for his research into

smoking cessation Smoking cessation, usually called quitting smoking or stopping smoking, is the process of discontinuing tobacco smoking. Tobacco smoke contains nicotine, which is addictive and can cause dependence. As a result, nicotine withdrawal often make ...

, including the effectiveness of

electronic cigarette An electronic cigarette is an electronic device that simulates tobacco smoking. It consists of an atomizer, a power source such as a battery, and a container such as a cartridge or tank. Instead of smoke, the user inhales vapor. As such ...

s for this purpose.

Education and academic career

Hajek received his PhD from

Charles University in Prague Charles University ( cs, Univerzita Karlova, UK; la, Universitas Carolina; german: Karls-Universität), also known as Charles University in Prague or historically as the University of Prague ( la, Universitas Pragensis, links=no), is the oldest an ...

in 1973. In 1982, he moved to England, where he joined the

Institute of Psychiatry The Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) is a research institution dedicated to discovering what causes mental illness and diseases of the brain. In addition, its aim is to help identify new treatments for them and ways ...

's Addiction Research Unit. He became a lecturer at

Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry , mottoeng = Temper the bitter things in life with a smile , parent = Queen Mary University of London , president = Lord Mayor of London , head_label = Warden , head = Mark Caulfield , students = 3,410 , undergrad = 2,23 ...

in 1992, and became a professor there in 1998.

Scientific work

Hajek is the author of over 250 peer-reviewed papers, and has helped develop treatments for people who are dependent on cigarette smoking. He is known for his research into electronic cigarettes, which, he has said, are "at least as effective as

nicotine patch A nicotine patch is a transdermal patch that releases nicotine into the body through the skin. It is used in nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), a process for smoking cessation. Endorsed and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ...

es" for smoking cessation in the context of minimum support. In 2014, Hajek and other researchers published a paper criticizing a

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...

report on electronic cigarettes published earlier that year, which they said had made "misleading" assumptions. Hajek has told the ''BBC'' that "...the risks f electronic cigarettesare unlikely, some already proven not to exist, while the benefits are potentially enormous." Also in 2014, Hajek co-authored a

Cochrane review Cochrane (previously known as the Cochrane Collaboration) is a British international charitable organisation formed to organise medical research findings to facilitate evidence-based choices about health interventions involving health professi ...

of the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation; the review found limited evidence that they were effective for this purpose. Hajek described the results of this review as "encouraging". In February 2019 he published "A Randomized Trial of E-Cigarettes versus Nicotine-Replacement Therapy" in the New England Journal of Medicine. This study demonstrated that smokers who used e-cigarettes to help them quit were 83% more likely to have quit smoking at one year than those who used conventional nicotine replacement therapy. However, according to a review article by Hussein Traboulsi et al. in May of 2020 Hajek's study also resulted in more smokers becoming dual users than succeeded in complete abstinence; "Nonetheless, the continued use of and dependence on nicotine and the creation of dual users were issues in this trial. Among participants with 1-year abstinence, 80% were still using e-cigarettes in the e-cigarette group and 9% were still using nicotine replacement in the nicotine replacement group 52 weeks later. Additionally, while 18% of the e-cigarette users achieved complete abstinence, 25% (110/438) became dual users of e-cigarettes and conventional cigarettes."

References

External links

Peter Hajek
at

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hajek, Peter British psychologists Czech psychologists Living people Academics of Queen Mary University of London Charles University alumni Clinical psychologists Tobacco researchers Year of birth missing (living people)