About 30% of smokers that kicked the habit due to the therapy started smoking again after a year or more

Jul 31, 2006 08:49 GMT  ·  By

A study published today in the Tobacco Control Journal presents the research of a medical team that shows that Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) is not as effective against tobacco smoking as previously thought.

Experts from a University in Geneva explained why this therapy has been wrongfully believed to be extremely beneficial until now. What happened was that previous studies that investigated how smokers responded to NRT followed the progresses they made only on short term period and failed to investigate them in the long-term.

On the other hand, Geneva researchers investigated 4800 individuals that were on NRT and found that 30% of them started smoking a year or more after finishing the therapy and quitting. This is mainly due to the fact that most the therapy against tobacco smoking should last more than 12 weeks. And that's because the nicotine within smokers' bodies is not removed or eliminated that easily and so quickly. Sometimes it takes years to free your body of nicotine.

"The treatment of tobacco dependence should probably last much more than the usual eight to 12-week course currently given to smokers," Dr Jean-Fran?ois Etter who led the study stated.

This means that if one really wants to quit smoking he should not limit himself to only one anti-tobacco therapy session, but the individual should go through several such sessions in order to successfully give up the bad habit.

"What our analysis showed is that the effect of NRT fades away over time. We concluded that, like for any other chronic condition, the treatment of tobacco dependence should probably last much more than the usual eight to 12-week course currently given to smokers. Several treatment episodes over several years would probably be more appropriate," leader of the study concluded.

One of the reasons why smokers that quit take up the habit again consists in the health problems they encounter - like gaining weight, chest pains etc. They also find it hard to keep themselves from smoking because it really takes time to clear the body of nicotine. "Many people relapse because withdrawal symptoms may be present even a long time after quitting, such as depression or weight gain, and because chronic nicotine use causes long lasting changes in the structure of the brain - more nicotinic receptors are present in the brain of smokers," Dr. Etter explained.