Estimation of risk of neuropsychiatric adverse events from varenicline, bupropion and nicotine patch versus placebo: secondary analysis of results from the EAGLES trial using Bayes factors

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide), published as a randomized controlled trial.

This might be because the null hypothesis was true or because the data were insensitive.

The present study aimed to test the hypothesis more directly using Bayes factors.

Who Took Part

Participants were smokers with (n = 4116) and without (n = 4028) psychiatric disorders.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study.

The participants were allocated by chance, so the Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) group and the comparison group should start out alike.

As a double-blind Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) study, the assignments were hidden from both participants and investigators until the end.

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

EAGLES was a randomised, double-blind, triple-dummy, controlled trial.

Global (16 countries across five continents), between November 2011 and January 2015.

The outcomes included: (i) a composite measure of moderate/severe NPSAEs; and (ii) a composite measure of severe NPSAEs.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Bayes Theorem, Benzazepines, Bupropion, Nicotinic Agonists, Quinoxalines, Tobacco Use Cessation Devices and Varenicline.

The authors tagged it with the keywords Bayes factor, EAGLES, neuropsychiatric adverse event, nicotine patch and smoking cessation.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

Its findings take up roughly 5 sentences of the abstract and are left out here on purpose; the source paper is the place to read them.

The publication is from 2021 (Addiction (Abingdon, England)), a journal based in England.

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