Can’t Quit Smoking Cold Turkey? Try This
Tue, April 14, 2009 at 02:00AM Many people try to quit smoking ‘cold turkey’, but it’s very difficult and most attempts fail. Now a meta-analysis that covered 2,750 smokers who declared they were not going to quit cold turkey has been published in the British Medical Journal online.
Seven placebo-controlled studies were identified – four used nicotine replacement therapy gum, two nicotine replacement therapy inhaler, and one a free choice of therapy, all compared against placebo. Nicotine replacement was used for 6 to 18 months, and the studies lasted 12 to 26 months. Abstinence for 6 months was regarded as the desired goal, as it was likely that half of those achieving this would go on to a complete ‘cure’.
As many as 6.75% of smokers on nicotine replacement therapy had sustained abstinence for 6 months. This was twice the rate of those taking a placebo – 3.28%.
Continuing to smoke while taking nicotine was not associated with any side effects except for slightly increased nausea – 8.7% of subjects vs. 5.3% on placebo.
These results show that embarking on a smoking reducing strategy can be twice as successful with the addition of nicotine replacement, in one form or another. So if you are having trouble in quitting cold turkey, get some help – your doctor can prescribe a patch or another form of nicotine therapy.
Reader Comments (1)
Has anyone ever heard of or tried subliminal music before? Supposedly it is like self hypnotism where you listen to hypnotizing music to quit smoking. I wanted to ask first and get a few other opinions about success rates etc before I considered trying a program out.