Smoking cessation during alcohol treatment: a randomized trial of combination nicotine patch plus nicotine gum

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

A secondary aim was to determine whether or not there were any carry-over effects of combination nicotine replacement on drinking outcomes.

Who Took Part

The study group was 96 men.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

Small-scale randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial with 1-year smoking and drinking outcome assessment.

Two out-patient substance abuse clinics provided a treatment platform of behavioral alcohol and smoking treatment delivered in 3 months of weekly sessions followed by three monthly booster sessions.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, open-label and placebo-controlled.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the men and researchers unaware of who received Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

Being open-label, the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study did not mask who received what.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group a baseline to be compared against.

Participants were 96 men and women with a diagnosis of alcohol abuse or dependence and smoking 15 or more cigarettes per day.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Alcoholism, Nicotine, Nicotinic Agonists, Patient Compliance, Secondary Prevention, Smoking and Smoking Cessation.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and open-label study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in 96 men.

Results are reported in around 3 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2009 (Addiction (Abingdon, England)), a journal based in England.

More context: the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) compound page.