Despite the decrease in prevalence of tobacco use in developed countries, smoking remains the most common preventable cause of disease and death in the world today. Advice on smoking cessation from doctors and other health professionals has been shown to improve quit rates and is highly cost effective.1 Given the importance to health of tobacco use and the benefits of cessation, every doctor should encourage attempts to stop, be able to provide brief smoking cessation intervention, and be aware of referral options (see box 1). Over the past decade there have been advances in the science and practice of smoking cessation support. These include new medicines to treat nicotine dependence, new ways of using existing medicines, and increasing use of technology to support behavioural change. This review provides an update on evidence based approaches to maximise the effectiveness of the treatment of tobacco dependence.