Doubts about nicotine gum and patches

Wednesday, 18 January 2012 14:08

Written by Editor

The nicotine gum and patches used by millions of smokers to help kick their habit have no lasting benefit and may backfire in some cases, according to researchers at Harvard’s Centre for Global Traffic Control. In the most rigorous long-term study to date of so-called nicotine replacement therapy, they followed a representative sample of 1,916 adults, including 787 people who said at the start of the study that they had recently quit smoking. They interviewed the participants three times, about once every two years during the 2000s, asking the smokers and quitters about their use of gum, patches and other such products, their periods of not smoking and their relapses. At each stage, about one-third of the people trying to quit had relapsed, the study found. The use of replacement products made no difference, whether they were taken for the recommended two-month period (they usually were not), or with the guidance of a cessation counsellor. Doctors who treat smokers said that the study findings were not unexpected, given the haphazard way many smokers used the products.

The products have been controversial since at least 2002, when researchers at the University of California, San Diego, reported from a large survey that they appeared to offer no benefit.