OF4-11/03/09 9:25 AM
THE BEST WAY TO HELP SMOKERS KICK THE HABIT?
The Osgood File. I'm Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.
There are various therapies to get smokers to quit --- lozenges, patches, chewing gum, sprays, inhalers, you name it -- alone or in combinations. And they all seem to work --- for a while, anyway. But there hasn't been a lot of testing of which things and combinations of things work best. Now, they've tested them all in different combinations --- and the result?
SOT - Dr. Megan Piper
"Smokers who were given the combination of nicotine patch plus nicotine lozenge had the best quit rate."
Dr. Megan Piper, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention in Madison.
Dr. Megan Piper and her colleagues conducted the tests on 1,504 adults --- all of whom were smoking at least 10 cigarettes a day. The nicotine patch-and-lozenge combination worked best.
SOT - Dr. Megan Piper
"The nicotine patch gives you a steady state of nicotine --- and the nicotine lozenge allows smokers to sort of dose as needed, if they're having a craving --- if they're worried about going into a situation where they may have a craving. And so, it gives them a little more control and ability to cope with whatever's going on in life, using a nicotine lozenge instead of a cigarette."
Whether singly or in combination, the therapies all worked to a point.
SOT - Dr. Megan Piper
"Everything's effective, but the patch and lozenge really seems to give people the edge..."
As far as relapses are concerned?
SOT - Dr. Megan Piper
"Fewer people relapsed. So what we were looking at was who was still smoking, six months after their quit date. And what we found was in the patch-lozenge combo, 40 percent had made it that far without smoking. When we talked to them at six months, they said --- No, smoke-free at this point."
Even so, a majority of the smokers did relapse.
SOT - Dr. Megan Piper
"Still, the majority of smokers relapsed. Which is why we're continuing to look for new treatments --- both medication, as well as coaching and counseling as well as other kinds of things that can help smokers quit."
The Osgood File. Charles Osgood on the CBS Radio Network.
The Osgood File. November 3rd, 2009. |
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