Recycling with nicotine patches in smoking cessation.
The aim was to evaluate if recycling of failures from a smoking cessation study may be of value. The study comprised 126 smokers (50%) of 252 failures, from a double-blind smoking cessation trial with nicotine patch, who accepted recycling after 1 year. Subjects were allocated nicotine patches delivering 15, 20 or 25 mg of nicotine (over 16 hours) according to their base-line saliva cotinine concentrations in an open trial. The treatment period was 12 weeks followed by tapering over 6 weeks. The percentage of quitters after 3, 12, 26, and 52 weeks was 44, 20, 7 and 6%, respectively. After 26 weeks, all subjects had relapsed in the group previously treated with active nicotine patch compared with 12% abstainers in the previous placebo subjects. The sustained abstinence rate without slips after one year was 2%. Recycling does not seem to be of long-term clinical relevance in our set-up for subjects initially treated with nicotine, but of some value in subjects quitting without nicotine therapy initially.
Tønnesen
P
P
Department of Pulmonary Medicine P, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Nørregaard
J
J
Säwe
U
U
Simonsen
K
K
D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003367:Cotinine / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009538:Nicotine / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D012008:Recurrence; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D016540:Smoking Cessation; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000209:etiology
D009538:Nicotine; D003367:Cotinine