Nicotine Dependence Center in Minnesota

Residential Treatment Program
(Rochester)

The eight-day residential treatment program at the Mayo Nicotine Dependence Center in Rochester, Minn., provides the most intensive treatment available for smoking cessation. More than 900 people have been treated in the program since it began in 1992.

The residential program is held in the Colonial Building on the Mayo Clinic campus.
See slide show.

The residential program offers:

• Protected, tobacco-free setting
• Individual and group counseling
• Medications to relieve withdrawal
• Physician supervision
• Long-term follow-up to prevent relapse

The program lasts eight days, from Friday to Friday. Sessions are kept small, with a maximum of 10 patients, to ensure that each individual's needs are met. The program is based on principles of addiction therapy and behavioral change.

Daily educational sessions cover topics such as stress management and medical effects of smoking.

Each person is assigned an individual counselor who is certified as a tobacco treatment specialist. An internal medicine physician oversees the care of all patients in the program.

Services include medical assessment and daily medical follow-up, medication assessment and treatment, lab work, individual and group counseling, educational sessions to help with stress management, relapse prevention, wellness coaching, tobacco-related health education, and sessions to assist family members and other significant others in helping in the recovery process.

Daily educational sessions cover information on stress management, family dynamics in recovery, relapse prevention, medical effects of smoking, grief and loss, respiratory therapy and wellness.

There are daily wellness activities, and supervised "off-unit" activities. The program is staffed 24 hours a day, and patients describe feeling safe, with ongoing supervision keeping them from having that "one cigarette." Patients are asked to monitor the improvement in their lung health daily with carbon monoxide testing.

Nicotine Dependence Center staff follow up regularly with all participants to help prevent relapse. About 50 percent of participants report being smoke free a year after completing the program.

Program dates | Program costs

Registration Requests

To submit a registration request for the Residential Treatment Program you may use the online appointment request form, or contact the Nicotine Dependence Center by phone or email.

Contact Us

800-344-5984 (toll-free)
507-266-9392
507-266-7236 fax
8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time Monday through Friday
stopsmoking@mayo.edu

Mailing Address

Mayo Clinic
Nicotine Dependence Center
8-Day Residential Treatment Program
Colonial Building
Third Floor
200 First Street SW
Rochester, MN 55905