Varenicline to stop long-term nicotine replacement use: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

This study evaluated the effect of varenicline in combination with counseling to assist long-term nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) users to quit NRT.

Who Took Part

PubMed indexes the participants as middle-aged adults, both men and women.

At the first visit, 139 ex-smokers and long-term NRT users were allocated to treatment according to a computer-generated list with random numbers.

At each visit, nurse-led counseling was delivered, carbon monoxide in expired air, plasma cotinine, and body weight were assessed, and subjects were asked about craving, nausea, and dreams.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

Because people in this Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the participants nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide), so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The comparison arm used a placebo, so changes seen with Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) could be set against what happens without it.

Visits were scheduled at Weeks 0, 2, 4, 6, 9, 12, and 52.

The primary outcome was 12-week point prevalence quit rate (PPR) of nicotine replacement therapy use.

What Was Measured

This study evaluated the effect of varenicline in combination with counseling to assist long-term nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) users to quit NRT.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Benzazepines, Nicotine, Nicotinic Antagonists, Quinoxalines, Smoking Cessation, Substance Withdrawal Syndrome and Surveys and Questionnaires.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide).

Results are reported in around 6 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2013 (Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco), a journal based in England.

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