Nicotine withdrawal Some smokers can stop well

Nicotine withdrawal: Some smokers can stop easier

01/12/2015

Many smokers who have decided to turn their backs on nicotine will relapse again. As a study shows, the chances of success of different methods of smoking cessation seem to depend on how fast a person breaks down nicotine.

Chances of success depend on the speed of nicotine breakdown
Apparently, the chances of success of different ways to cease smoking also depend on how fast a person degrades nicotine. According to a report from the dpa news agency, smokers who normally metabolize the tobacco benefit more from medicines, according to a study. Nicotine patches, for example, are the most common pharmacotherapy in the US and Europe. This is reported by US physicians Caryn Lerman from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in the journal „The Lancet Respiratory Medicine“.

Most of the smokers will relapse
Every year, around six million people worldwide die as a result of smoking, and health care costs are estimated at $ 200 billion (€ 170 billion). For smoking cessation various options are available. „Up to 65 percent of smokers who quit have a relapse in the first week“, so Lerman. The weaning is complicating the claims, especially by the craving for nicotine, which also depends on how fast the organism of a human degrades this substance. And that, in turn, depends mainly on the activity of an enzyme in the liver, which is influenced by the genome and also by the external circumstances.

Stronger withdrawal symptoms at normal rate of degradation
The nicotine levels in the body fall faster in people with normal rate of degradation - according to the authors about 60 percent of the population. As a rule, they smoke more, have worse withdrawal symptoms in the absence of replenishment and are therefore more likely to relapse. The physicians tested about 1,250 abstinent smokers in the US and Canada for the nicotine degradation rate (NMR) to determine the effect of metabolism. The participants were divided into three groups: one received a nicotine patch and a placebo pill, another group received a drug and a placebo plaster and the rest were given a dummy plaster and an ointment tablet. It was found that among the people with normal metabolism who received the drug, the success rate was twice as high after eleven weeks as with the patch carriers.

Plasters have fewer side effects
And even after six months, the drug was even more helpful than the patch, but the difference was now lower. For example, the placebo abstinence rate was 10 percent, with the patch at 13 percent, and with the drug at 16 percent. It is also reported that patch and tablet were similarly effective in people with slow nicotine metabolism at the end of therapy. Therefore, the doctors advise these people to patches, as they have fewer side effects, such as nausea, headache or depression. „To increase the success rates for all smokers while minimizing side effects, we should, according to our results, treat people with normal metabolism with varenicline and those with slow nicotine patches“, said co-author Rachel Tyndale of the University of Toronto.

E-cigarettes as an aid in smoking cessation
„More importantly, you could develop a rapid test that measures the rate of nicotine degradation.“ The nicotine degradation test used by the researchers took several days and cost about $ 50 per sample. Experts from the British University of Bristol described the study in a commentary as „important scientific progress“. If the results were confirmed, this could lead to a change in clinical practice. Another means of smoking cessation was not investigated by the researchers: e-cigarettes can be useful as an aid in smoking cessation. For example, at the end of last year, a Cochrane study found that smokers who use electronic cigarettes can more easily stop smoking or reduce it. In addition, a study had examined the effects of electronic cigarettes compared to nicotine patches, with a similar effectiveness of the two treatments, as the Cochrane Collaboration reported at the time. (Ad)