Professor Hayden McRobbie - National Drug & Alcohol Research Centre UNSW
- Pippa Starr
- Dec 1, 2023
- 3 min read
Professor McRobbie graduated with his degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Otago (New Zealand) in 1996. After working in general medicine and surgery for three years he moved to the UK to take up a post in the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit (now the Health and Lifestyle Unit) at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Queen Mary University of London. Whilst working in the unit he completed his PhD, which focused on tobacco withdrawal symptomatology.
Hayden’s main areas of research are in (1) the treatment of tobacco dependence with a current focus on electronic cigarettes and digital strategies for preventing relapse and (2) in behavioural interventions for weight management. He has also worked as a clinician in the Stop Smoking Services and the unit’s Weight Action Programme.
Hayden is frequently involved in teaching, training and development of healthcare professionals in smoking cessation and weight management. He is also a clinical advisor to the New Zealand Ministry of Health Tobacco Control Programme and is the Clinical Practice Champion for the Ministry’s Raising Healthy Kids Health Target to help tackle childhood obesity.
Professor McRobbie contributes to numerous expert bodies, committees, working groups and conferences and is an Assistant Editor of Addiction, Associate Editor of Nicotine and Tobacco Research, Deputy Editor of the Journal of Smoking Cessation, and a member of the Society for Research of Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT). Source>>
December 1 2023 - Video - Balancing the public health risks and benefits
October 19 2021 - VIDEO - Are e-cigarettes the magic bullet?
Are e-cigarettes the magic bullet? Whilst the vast majority of people, all around the world, know that smoking can be catastrophic for their health, cigarettes remain a powerful and enduring motif in popular culture. E-cigarettes have slipped quietly and quickly into the lives of many smokers, promoting themselves as a much healthier option to dirty old cigarettes. But are they the silver bullet they claim to be or is it more sinister than that? Where’s the research to back up the benefits? Are there any harms? Should we be worried about the increasing trend of young people taking up e-cigarettes? In this wide-ranging discussion, public health and behaviour experts Hayden McRobbie and Alys Havard discuss the merits of e-cigarettes and whether they are a legitimate tool to break addiction, or just a smoke screen. Presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas and UNSW National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC). Source>>
14 October 2021 - Panel Advising TGA "Nicotine vaping products, the NZ smoking cessation experience Practical tips for Australian prescribers"
31 January 2019 - E-cigarettes nearly twice as effective as other nicotine replacement therapies
Many smokers successfully quit by switching to e-cigarettes (vaping), but doctors can’t recommend this treatment without good evidence from clinical trials. They now have this evidence. Our latest study confirms that e-cigarettes are indeed an effective way to help smokers quit.
In the trial, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, almost 900 smokers seeking to quit were randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group was given nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) – mostly combinations of nicotine patches with a shorter-acting medication, such as nicotine chewing gum, inhaler or mouth spray. The other group was given a refillable e-cigarette, with one or two bottles of e-liquid, and taught how to use the device. They were then encouraged to buy more supplies of their choice, with nicotine strengths and flavours that they liked. Both groups also received weekly face-to-face support over at least the first four weeks of the study.
