Nicotine replacement therapies effective, but leave room for ...

Tag : Nicotine

MedWire News : The current range of pharmacotherapies available to treat tobaccodependence are all more effective than placebo at promoting smokingabstinence at 6 and 12 months, according to the results of ameta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Mark Eisenberg (McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) andcolleagues identified 69 randomized, controlled trials involving atotal of 32,908 patients that reported biochemically validatedmeasures of smoking abstinence at 6 months and 12 months.
The use of biochemical validation provides additional assurance ofself-reported smoking abstinence and enhances the validity ofoutcomes, the authors explain.
Eisenberg and team found that varenicline, bupropion, and the fournicotine replacement therapies nasal spray, patch, gum, and tabletapproximately doubled the odds of smoking abstinence compared withplacebo, at odds ratios of 2.41, 2.07, 2.37, 2.07, 2.06, and 1.71,respectively.
Nicotine inhalers also appeared to double the odds, but the resultswere not statistically significant.
However, most of the randomized, controlled trials in the analysisreported the point prevalence of abstinence at 12 months to be wellunder 30% among patients in the treatment groups. The rate was evenlower with continuous abstinence as the outcome measure.
"Despite the documented efficacy of these [nicotine replacement]agents, the absolute number of patients who were abstinent fromsmoking at 12 months was low," the authors caution.
"Consequently, there remains a need to develop improved smokingcessation agents and to identify optimal cessation strategies,including alternative ways to use existing agents," the teamconcludes.
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