Nicotine gums, patches, nasal sprays do not help people quit cigarettes, study says

23536

23536

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GUMS, patches and nasal sprays that supply smokers with nicotine do not help people quit cigarettes over the long term any better than going it alone, a US study says.

The research by the Harvard University School of Public Health followed 787 adults in the state of Massachusetts who had recently quit smoking, and found that over time just as many relapsed after nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) as without - about a third.

"This study shows that using NRT is no more effective in helping people stop smoking cigarettes in the long term than trying to quit on one's own," said lead author Hillel Alpert, a research scientist at Harvard.

Study participants were surveyed over three periods: 2001-2002, 2003-2004, and 2005-2006.

Not only were relapse rates about the same among those who used NRT and those who did not, the study found that heavily dependent smokers who took NRT without professional therapy were twice as likely to relapse as those who did not use NRT.

"This may indicate that some heavily dependent smokers perceive NRT as a sort of 'magic' pill, and upon realising it is not, they find themselves without support in their quitting efforts, doomed to failure," said the study in the journal Tobacco Control.


. . .

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, whose US products include the NicoDerm CQ patch and Nicorette gum, responded to the study by saying: "There remains strong support for NRT's efficacy and its positive impact on public health."

In a statement, it cited the World Health Organisation, leading experts and world governments which "agree that NRT products have a crucial role to play in helping to reduce the devastating toll of disease caused by tobacco dependence".

It also referenced "numerous studies (that) show smokers who use NRT products per the dosing recommendations, combined with support, can double their chances of successfully quitting over 'cold turkey'".

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/ne...-help-quit-study/story-e6freuyi-1226240440047
 
The patch worked for my wife and I after trying to quit for years. NYC started to offer a free quit smoking program where they sent free patches, we decided to give it a try and now we have been nicotine free for 2 1/2 years.
 
So are they saying 1/3 of people who quit after using patches relapse, as do 1/3 who don't use patches and quit? Because I assume more people who use patches quit in the first place.

One has to quit smoking in the short term in order to quit in the long term. And if these patches help people quit in the short term, they're working. I'm not sure anybody thinks nicotine patches are supposed to prevent relapse... Who sponsored this study?
 
NRT is almost worthless. I've tries it before and it did nothing. There's monamine oxidase inhibitors in tobacco as well as nicotine. WD of MAOIs from smoking is more likely the cause of sadness and anxiety upon quitting cigs due to their antidepressant effect. Nicotine isn't actually that addictive without combining it with MAOIs which explains why it doesn't help people that much quitting on it's own. I've taken a nicotine antagonist while actively being a smoker and the precipitated withdrawal was almost non-existent. Cold turkey is the only way that has actually worked for me. You have to WD from all the psychoactive components in tobacco smoke.
 
Quitting smoking is a lengthy and difficult process that many governments have put millions of dollars into motivating. A new study, however, signifies that nicotine substitution therapies do not have an impact on the long-term success of individuals attempting to quit smoking. Source of article: Patches and gums do not help smokers quit long-term. And in addition to that, as of Sept.23, 2010, all insurance plans were required to offer stop-smoking programs of some sort.
 
I asked for NRT a few months back, and got given what I asked for-an oromucosal nicotine spray, at a concentration of 1mg per actuation, which sprays a few hundred microliters of nicotine base dissolved in a mixture of ethanol, propylene glycol and glycerin. I find that its pretty useful for supporting memory due to the general sharing of such properties due to the enhancement of nicotinic AChR mediated neurotransmission. And a pleasant pick me up. But unless some tobacco is smoked before administration of the nicotine freebase soln. then its not that rewarding, and during several repeated experiments I performed, wherein I chose to cease (short of the odd cigar and infrequent rollup when I did miss a smoke, mainly when I'd just shot up some oxycontin (of note I am on several meds, tizanidine at the time (now on clonidine...which is soooo much better) and am opioid dependent as a chronic pain patient, been on opioids for years now. Can't avoid it with my knee and hip problems, neuropathy and fucked up foot.

I chose to go without tobacco, as stated, other than those odd cigars/rollups for quite some time, and solely use the nicotine spray, and sometimes a solution of nicotine base I prepared in the lab and administered transdermally. I wouldn't have rated it a strongly, or even significantly reinforcing drug at all to be honest.
 
It's just the same as anything else. These NRT patches, electronic cigarettes will work for some folk and not for others.
I've got friends who have successfully used the patches and still don't smoke several years down the line,while other friends have tried all the replacement items available and still cannot give up smoking.
 
Call me old fashioned, but if your quitting smoking by replacing it with patches/gum/ecigs then you haven't really quit. Your still addicted to the same chemical just ingesting it in a safer way.

You spend 3 days really really pissed off and then boom, that's it done. Want a tip? smoke pure weed for those few days and it's easy.
 
Newbierock said:
Call me old fashioned, but if your quitting smoking by replacing it with patches/gum/ecigs then you haven't really quit. Your still addicted to the same chemical just ingesting it in a safer way.

You spend 3 days really really pissed off and then boom, that's it done. Want a tip? smoke pure weed for those few days and it's easy.
Click to expand...

the 3 days thing is not true at all....I am going on a week without smoking and its all I can do not to start again. I have even thought about smoking a butt out of the ash tray on my neighbors portch. For some people quitting is easy and for some it is agonizing. I made it 9 months once after using the patch and losenges to quit initially. They are insanely expensive but do help in the short term. long term though...I don't have much hope that I will stay quit.

Just trying to get a job at a place that will not hire smokers and test you for nicotine use as a condition of employment. I suspect that once I get the job that I will be back to smoking a pack a day in no time.
 
^Isnt it more like several weeks as far as physical withdrawals go and then much longer as far as the psychological urges go? I have recently tried to quit swedish snus and had 3 or 4 days worth of physical withdrawals. I didnt get grumpy or anything though just couldnt concentrate, and felt tired and dizzy. The nicotine gum of about the same strength gets rid of the withdrawals but doesnt provide any pleasure at all. I am going to try a taper for about a month with the gum only as I couldnt do it with just reducing the amount of snus per day.
 
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