Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Effective or not?
Is nicotine replacement therapy effective in helping people quit tobacco smoking?
A Controlled Trial of Sustained-Release Bupropion, a Nicotine Patch, or Both for Smoking Cessation.
Smoking is the silent killer of the 20th century more people died from smoking and smoking related illness in the past hundred years than in all the major wars. The situation used to be one of ignorance people did not realise the ill-effects of their habit on their health and the health of those around them. Today the situation has changed most realise the danger but many are addicted and find it extremely difficult to quit. Nicotine is a drug and like most is highly addictive it is a craving for this nicotine which makes it difficult to suddenly stop smoking, hence the introduction of nicotine replacement therapy. The release of nicotine or some similar substance delivers the nicotine to the body without the harmful tar of smoke inhalation hence relieving some of the craving intensity.
Use of such nicotine-replacement therapies is thought to help people quit smoking. The study detailed above was undertaken to determine the effectiveness of such nicotine replacement therapies on smoking subjects, and monitor side effects (if any). The study combines nicotine release patches with an antidepressant bupropion (a combination now used pharmaceutically). Jornby et al.(1) conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled comparison of sustained-release bupropion, a nicotine patch, bupropion and a nicotine patch, and placebo for smoking cessation. They excluded smokers with any clinical depression. Treatment consisted of nine weeks of bupropion (150 mg a day for the first three days, and then 150 mg twice daily) or placebo, as well as eight weeks of nicotine-patch therapy (21 mg per day during weeks 2 through 7, 14 mg per day during week 8, and 7 mg per day during week 9) or placebo. The target day for quitting smoking was usually day 8.
They used 893 people (from an original 1182) who each smoked at least 15 cigarettes per day, recruited through media and allocated randomly to the relevant group.
244 subjects received sustained release bupropion
244 subjects received a nicotine patch
245 subjects received bupropion and a nicotine patch
160 subjects received a placebo
The study deals with both the immediate cessation of smoking and also makes measure of levels of depression (directly linked to likelihood of smoking resumption) (Hurt et al(2) showed conclusively that bupropion administered exclusively resulted in a 23% long term success rate, hence linking affect or...