(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Doctors who really want to help their patients kick
the habit need to get aggressive.
That’s the take home message from two studies on smoking cessation. The first
involved 750 people who smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day. Researchers
randomized the smokers to three groups: one received a nicotine patch or
bupropion, a drug to ease withdrawal symptoms; a second received one of the stop
smoking aides plus up to two phone calls from counselors trained to help people
quit; the third received a stop smoking aide plus three phone calls.
People assigned to the most intensive treatment – a stop smoking aide plus three
phone calls from a counselor – were the most likely to quit smoking over the two
year study.
The second study was conducted among 127 smokers with cardiovascular disease,
COPD, or other chronic conditions. They were randomized to either a nicotine
patch for ten weeks or the patch plus a nicotine inhaler and bupropion for as
long as needed.
Again, quit rates were significantly better for people who received the more
aggressive treatment, 35 percent at six months versus 19 percent.
The author of the first study, Edward Ellerbeck, M.D., from the University of
Kansas, was quoted as saying, “We found that smokers are willing to make
repeated medically-assisted attempts at quitting smoking, resulting in
progressively greater smoking abstinence.” He believes this suggests the need to
take a disease management approach to smoking cessation. “Physicians should talk
to their patients continually about quitting, and should facilitate access to a
smoking cessation medication.”
Investigators from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey,
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School conducted the second study. They note
patients in their study were already suffering the ill effects of smoking and
people with these conditions are likely to be highly addicted to nicotine.
“Our trial demonstrates that intensive treatment with a triple combination of
medications could work well for them,” study author Michael B. Steinberg, M.D.,
M.P.H., was quoted as saying.
SOURCE: Archives of Internal Medicine, published online April 6, 2009
