Smoking constitutes the gravest, yet avoidable, deadly threat to health in Poland. Near the end of the 90-ies it was discovered that the antidepressant -bupropion- has positive effects in the treatment of addiction to nicotine. The aim of the study was the evaluation of the efficacy of ambulatory, intensive smoking cessation program based on bupropion SR with educational support. 54 smokers (18 men and 36 women) were enrolled, age 22-59 yr. (mean 45.5 +/- 8.7), smoking 10-50 cigarettes daily. Early abstinence rate (7 weeks after quitting) was 61.1%, after 6 months 45.2% of the participants were still non-smokers. The most common adverse effects of bupropion SR therapy were mouth dryness and sleep disturbances, 13% of patients had to stop using bupropion because of side effects. High percentage of abstinence indicates that intensive smoking cessation programs should be used as a part of antinicotine strategy. The pharmacological support in the nicotine dependence treatment should be performed under careful physician supervision.