Cessation of long-term nicotine gum use--a prospective, randomized trial.

What Was Tested

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

Nicotine gum is an important adjunct for smoking cessation for many smokers, and long-term use of nicotine gum will occur in a small percentage of patients.

The researchers enrolled 26 subjects at the Mayo Clinic site of the Lung Health Study who had used nicotine gum for more than 6 months to participate in a trial where subjects were randomly assigned to: (1) abrupt cessation, (2) taper with placebo gum, or (3) taper with active gum.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 26 subjects were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults and middle-aged adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

In design terms this was a randomized 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.

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

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Chewing Gum, Long-Term Care, Motivation, Nicotine, Risk Factors, Smoking Cessation and Substance-Related Disorders.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide) in 26 subjects.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

The publication is from 1995 (Addiction (Abingdon, England)), a journal based in England.

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