Is Chantix better than nicotine replacement?
August 1st, 2008 by Kurt Niland
Smoking cessation today isn’t as simple as it used to be. Years ago, smokers had a couple of choices: cold turkey or hypnotherapy. Then, as awareness about the dangers of smoking grew, thanks to efforts by the government and independent health groups, so too did the number of smoking cessation aids. First came prescription-only nicotine gum, which was quickly succeeded by a procession-soon-to-be-explosion of over-the-counter therapeutic nicotine — gum, patches, lozenges. In 1997, the FDA approved bupropion (a.k.a. Zyban/Wellbutrin) for use in smoking cessation. Meanwhile, all sorts of gadgets and gimmicks flooded the market. And then came Chantix.
Heralded by many doctors and other experts as the most promising smoking cessation aid yet developed, for the unique way in which it blocked nicotine from reaching key receptors in the brain, Chantix was set to take over the stop-smoking world. The prevailing attitude seemed to be “it’s high tech, therefore it’s better.”
But is Chantix better? A study comparing the effectiveness of Chantix to NicoDerm CQ reveals that in the short term, yes, Chantix is better. In the long term, however, the same study indicates there is no difference. The study randomly administered either 12 weeks of Chantix or 10 weeks of the NicoDerm patch to 746 participants and followed their progress for a year. Chantix showed a higher rate of success over NicoDerm during the last 4 weeks of treatment. After a year, however, the rates of success were statistically the same.
While browsing the web for the latest news about Chantix, I come across a lot of emails, blog posts, and reader comments written by people who are taking Chantix or are considering taking it. It occurred to me today that this blog could serve as a forum for discussing smoking cessation methods and comparing them to Chantix. As a former user of Chantix, I actually have more than the FDA-recommended 12-week experience with the drug, but that’s another story and I’ll save it for another post!