It was first used in 1968 and the main intention of this is to reduce the desire to smoke. Although not entirely understood, rapid smoking (RS) is thought to work on 2 fronts; pharmacological (nicotine) and sensory. This rapid aversive procedure exaggerates the impact of both pharmacological and sensory effects of smoking to reduce cravings. Dallery in 2002 showed that it is more the role of nicotine than the sensory effects that reduces cravings, as smokers using RS with denicotinized cigarettes had less an effect from the procedure than those using nicotine cigarettes.

RS involved asking the smoker to take a puff every 6 to 10 seconds. They smoke for 3 minutes or until they consume 3 cigarettes or are unable to continue. They then get a period of rest lasting about 5 minutes and then repeat the procedure another 2-3 times. During this form of aversion therapy, smokers are asked to concentrate on the unpleasant sensation of smoking such as the smoke, the smell, and the staleness of the air. RS is then followed by a counseling session explaining the rationale of the rapid somking method

There was innitially concerns that rapidly smoking cigarettes will cause nicotine poisoning, heart attacks or problems with heart rhythm, but this has been unfounded (Hall 1984, Russell 1978). An estimated 35 000 smokers had to use this procedure for 1 to experience temporary negative effects. None of the numerous studies on RS have had trouble recruiting cigarette smokers too.

Conclusions:
Of all the aversion techniques, rapid smoking has been the only one shown to be effective in over 12 research studies. It leads to significantly lower urges to smoke in the immeidate 24 hours and this effect lasts up to 1 week. However at 4 weeks, there was only a very minor decrease in smoking urge compared to self paced smoking or the cold turkey no smoking technique. As such, RS would be beneficial at the start of your quit date as it reduces craving at 1 week, and other studies have shown that smoking within 2 weeks of quitting has a poor outcome in the long term (McRobbie Addiction 2007)