FRIDAY, Feb. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Smokers who use a nicotine patch two weeks before quitting may double their chances of success, even though patches currently warn against using the patch while smoking, researchers report in the Feb. 1 issue of Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
Jed E. Rose, Ph.D., and colleagues from Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., recruited 96 smokers aged 18 to 65 who smoked at least a pack a day. Subjects received a 21 milligram nicotine patch or placebo patch two weeks before a target date, and smoked either their usual brand, low tar and nicotine cigarettes, or denicotinized cigarettes. After the quit date, participants received a 0 mg, 21 mg or 42 mg nicotine patch, as well as 10 mg/day of the nicotine antagonist mecamylamine.
Independent of the brand-switch, 50 percent of the subjects receiving nicotine patches prior to the quit date were abstinent four weeks after the target date, compared with 23 percent receiving the placebo patch. Abstinence rates after six months appeared to be higher, although many patients were lost on follow-up. Participants wearing the patch smoked less than usual during the two weeks prior to quitting, had fewer cravings, had reduced severity of withdrawal symptoms, or more easily switched to low-tar and nicotine cigarettes.
"These results suggest that use of nicotine replacement therapy before a target quit-smoking date deserves further evaluation as a possible smoking cessation treatment," Rose and colleagues write."
The study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
Abstract
