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NICOTINE CHEWING GUM HELPS SMOKERS QUIT.

The addiction to cigarette smoking is in large part an addiction to nicotine. If one could provide patients with nicotine from a less toxic source than cigarettes, and then gently taper that nicotine source over time, it might help patients to quit smoking. A large randomized, double-blind study evaluated the effectiveness of nicotine chewing gum combined with group counseling in helping people to quit smoking.

With this approach, smokers who were highly dependent on nicotine were able to quit; 82 percent remained abstinent at six weeks and 33 percent were still abstinent after two years. The effect of the gum was significantly greater with higher doses of nicotine, indicating a dose-response effect. Abstinence rates were significantly higher in patients who used nicotine gum than in patients given placebo gum.

Physicians should consider nicotine chewing gum in combination with counseling to help motivated patients stop smoking.

— ALK

Published in Journal Watch General Medicine January 15, 1988

Citation(s):

Tonnesen P; Fryd V; Hansen M et al. Effect of nicotine chewing gum in combination with group counseling on the cessation of smoking. N Engl J Med 1988 Jan 7 318 15-18.

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