Extensive use of such as nicotine patches and gums may actually make the problem worse by supporting the cravings at a fairly low levels that does not relieve the withdrawal craving. Coupled with this the fact that smokers continues to incur significant cost, with nothing to show for it in terms of combating nicotine dependency.
Less apparent, the heavy marketing of such stop smoking products has a similar, unconscious, conditioning effect to the promotion of smoking itself – and you don’t want to be addicted to nicotine patches forever. At best this leaves the smoker frustrated.
Anti-depressant drugs
Anti-depressant drugs are known to help withdrawal. Brupopion (Zyban as it’s also know as) is the most effective, and success rates of up to 30 per cent have been known both as a stand-alone product and also in association with nicotine replcement therapy plus guidance or counseling.
Unfortunately there have been disturbing side effects and it is a quite pricey drug, usually prescribed for a period of some months. The same unaccounted variables as with NRT may apply.
Smokers often have other requirements to stop when they undergo an expensive stop smoking remedy such as this, and the effect of this cannot be tracked in the published results. As motivation is cited universally as the biggest factor in quitting smoking, the results of drug-based stop smoking hypnosis are not reliable. Most importantly they do not address the habitual behavior and psychological factors involved.
Not many studies measure effectiveness more than 18 months in any case, so this is not a measure of permanent withdrawal, with which we are concerned in this article.
Many researchers make similar disclaimers. For example, Schneider et al. showed that simply issuing NRT products actually resulted in a lower quit rate with active gum than with placebo treatment (8% nicotine gum, 13% placebo gum).
In actuality, the product inserts for all transdermal nicotine remedies indicate that it should be used as part of a stop smoking program. Of course most patients simply buy and apply the patches like sticking plaster. Without any behavioral help, we can therefore expect very low quit rates with nicotine patches.
Drugs are habit forming just like cigarettes, of course, and repetitive attempts of quitting smoking mean repeat sales and more profit. The fact that these profits fund major research programs helps to explain why the truth about the relative effectiveness of quit smoking products does not reach the average smoker.
