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A Little Quitting Help for Smokers

By Carolyn Sayre | Monday, Oct. 9, 2006 | Permalink


Smoking is a tough habit to kick, with 41% of smokers trying to quit ever year and only 10% of them actually succeeding. Wouldn’t it be great if you could just pop a pill and take away those unhealthy urges?

That may be a reality someday soon. Researchers at the University of Chicago have found that in a small double blind study a new drug – naltrexone, which blocks the effects of narcotics and has been used in the past to treat heroin addicts - used in conjunction with behavior therapy and nicotine patches helps stop women lighting up. The study found that the novel treatment combo increased success rates in women smokers by nearly 50%. The results will be published in the journal of Nicotine and Tobacco Research this month.

The study’s relatively small sample size examined 110 men and women who reported smoking a pack a day – approximately 20 cigarettes – for a period of 25 years and had unsuccessfully tried to quit several times. Half of the participants took 50 milligrams for a period of eight weeks – starting three days before they tried to quit – the other half was given placebos.

The researchers defined a successful cessation as “not smoking daily for one week and not smoking even a puff at least one day in each of two consecutive weeks at any point in the trial.” After eight weeks the results were in - 62% of men and 58% of women on naltrexone stopped smoking – but in the group taking placebos 67% of men and 39% of women had quit. As a result, the research was only significant in women. In the study the drug helped assuage the women’s cravings and reduce their withdrawal symptoms.

What it Means:

It is unclear yet whether Naltrexone will be helpful in a larger population since the sample size was small. However, what is clear is that scientists are getting closer to developing one drug that really helps smokers quit. In July, a new drug – varenicline – was reported to help 40% of the study’s large sample size stop in nine weeks.