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| Nicotine gum and skin patch |
| Nicotine gum and skin patch face new doubt
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| UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
, 10-January-2012
6:8:4 AM |
| The nicotine gum and patches that millions of smokers use to help kick their habit have no lasting benefit and may backfire in some cases, according to the most rigorous long-term study to date of so-called nicotine replacement therapy.
The study, published on Monday in the journal Tobacco Control, included nearly 800 people trying to quit smoking over a period of several years, and is likely to inflame a long-running debate about the value of nicotine alternatives.
In medical studies, the products have proved effective, making it easier for people to quit, at least in the short term. Those earlier, more encouraging findings were the basis for federal guidelines that recommended the products for smoking cessation.
But in surveys, smokers who have used the over-the-counter products, either as part of a program or on their own, have reported little benefit. The new study followed one group of smokers to see whether nicotine replacement affected their odds of kicking the habit over time. It did not, even if they also received counseling with the nicotine replacement.
The market for nicotine replacement products has taken off in recent years, rising to more than $800 million annually in 2007 from $129 million in 1991. The products were approved for over-the-counter sale in 1997, and many state Medicaid programs cover at least one of them.
"We were hoping for a very different story," said Dr. Gregory N. Connolly, director of Harvard's Center for Global Tobacco Control and a co-author of the study. "I ran a treatment program for years, and we invested" millions in treatment services.
Doctors who treat smokers said that the study findings were not unexpected, given the haphazard way many smokers used the products. "Patient compliance is a very big issue," said Dr. Richard Hurt, director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic, who was not involved in the study.
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