According to researchers, it may be that using nicotine patches for 24 weeks, rather than the standard, recommended time of eight weeks, may help smokers quit the habit more efficiently. Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine say that patches indeed help people who made it their New Year's resolution to quit smoking, and say that more programs promoting patch usage are in order, if authorities are striving to reduce the number of smokers, and the healthcare costs associated with taking care of them via the healthcare system, e! Science News reports.

Details of the new investigation appear in the February 2 issue of the respected scientific journal Annals of Internal Medicine. “Our data suggest that the many smokers who relapse while trying to quit will be especially helped by extended treatment, which appears to make it easier for smokers to 'get back on the wagon' after a small smoking slip, instead of having it turn into a full-blown relapse. We know that tobacco dependence is a chronic, relapsing condition that may require extended treatment, and we hope our research efforts will encourage physicians to recommend to their patients that they use nicotine patches for a longer duration,” expert Robert Schnoll, PhD, says.

The scientist is also a Penn associate professor of psychiatry, and the lead author of the new study. The work was focused on 568 adult smokers, who had the habit of using at least ten cigarettes per day for the last 12 months. Together with the Penn Mary W. Calkins Professor of Psychiatry Caryn Lerman, PhD, Schnoll discovered that people in the study group who kept using the nicotine patches for 24 weeks were a lot more likely to resist the temptation of picking up the habit again. Lerman is the deputy director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the university, and also the senior author of the study.

“While we have documented that extended therapy is more efficacious overall than standard therapy, not everyone benefits equally. Therefore, our team is using genetic approaches to identify smokers who will achieve the greatest benefit from an extended or maintenance therapy approach,” Lerman reveals. The investigation is only a small part of a larger effort set up by scientists at the Penn Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Nicotine Addiction, who are deeply involved with studying the root genetic causes of addiction.