Medication therapy may help reluctant smokers quit gradually

A nicotine addiction pill known as Chantix can help smokers quit gradually when they can’t go cold turkey, a study found, suggesting that it may be time to revisit practice guidelines that focus primarily on immediate cessation. The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association was funded by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which makes Chantix, but was led by doctors at the non-profit Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. More than 1,500 smokers enrolled. All said they were not ready to quit in the next 30 days, but did want to kick the habit within three months.

This allows us to reach a much broader population of smokers who aren’t willing to quit abruptly…this is very strong support for changing clinical practice to include gradual reduction aided by medication.

Dr. Jon Ebbert from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota

After six months, those who took Chantix were more than four times more likely to quit than those who took a placebo - 32.1 per cent on the medication stopped smoking, compared to 6.9 per cent of the placebo group. After a year, those in the medication group were twice as likely to have quit than those in the placebo cohort. By that time, 27 per cent on the medication had quit, versus 9.9 per cent on the placebo.