Effectiveness of a 16-hour transdermal nicotine patch in a medical practice setting, without intensive group counseling

What Was Tested

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

Who Took Part

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

A single-site, randomized, double-blind, out-patient, parallel-group, placebo-controlled trial consisting of 220 regular, otherwise healthy cigarette smokers.

Patients participated in a 12-week patch treatment phase plus a 6-week tapering phase.

How the Study Was Run

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

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

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

Some participants received a placebo instead of Therapeutic nicotine (patch, non-peptide), giving a reference point.

Groups ran in parallel: each of the participants stayed in one arm throughout.

A standard medical office model of physician intervention, such as could easily be employed by any primary care physician, without need for any special psychological services, training, or skills, was the behavioral intervention.

What Was Measured

The subject headings attached to it are Administration, Cutaneous, Cotinine, Family Practice, Nicotine, Patient Compliance, Psychotherapy, Group and Smoking.

What This Means in Plain Language

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

The abstract goes on to report its results in about 5 sentences; this page does not restate them, so read the paper for the findings and their limits.

The publication is from 1993 (Archives of internal medicine), a journal based in United States.

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