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Tobacco 101: A Guide to Working with Nicotine Addicted Patients

Course Number: 534

In Summary

“NRT and Bupropion helped about 80% more people to quit than placebo; this means that for every 10 people who quit with placebo about 18 could be expected to quit with NRT or with Bupropion. Varenicline more than doubled the chances of quitting compared with placebo, so that for every 10 who quit with placebo about 28 could be expected to quit with Varenicline.

Varenicline helped about 50% more people to quit than nicotine patch and ‘other’ NRT (tablets, sprays, lozenges and inhalers), and about 70% more people than nicotine gum. So, for every 10 people who quit with NRT patch or with ‘other’ NRT, about 15 could be expected to quit with Varenicline, and for every 10 who quit with NRT gum about 17 could be expected to quit with Varenicline. Combining two type of NRT was as effective as using Varenicline and helped more people to quit than single types of NRT. There was little to choose between different types of NRT, apart from ‘other’ NRT, which helped slightly more people than nicotine gum; for every 10 people who quit with NRT gum, about 12 could be expected to quit with ‘other’ NRT.

NRT combined with Nortriptyline or with Bupropion was not more effective than NRT alone.”49