Tobacco.org

Effects of Exposure of Youths at Risk for Smoking to Television Advertising for Nicotine Replacement Therapy and Zyban®: An Experimental Study 

This study suggests that although ads for NRT and Zyban may create "face value" impressions that it is easier to quit, at least in an experimental context in which exposure to ads for telephone quitlines is equal, such appraisals do not undermine more enduring perceptions about smoking. Field research taking into account the relatively high volume of pharmaceutical cessation product advertising is needed.

Jump to full article »

Newer antidepressants linked to serious lung disorder in newborns 

Health Canada is advising women who are taking antidepressants known as Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors (SSRI) and who are pregnant or intend to become pregnant to discuss the situation with their doctor due to potential risks to the baby. . . .

SSRIs and other newer antidepressants prescribed for the treatment of depression include the following drugs: Wellbutrin (bupropion), Celexa (citalopram), Cipralex (escitalopram), Prozac (fluoxetine), Luvox (fluvoxamine), Remeron (mirtazapine), Paxil (paroxetine), Zoloft (sertraline) and Effexor (venlafaxine), and Zyban (bupropion) for smoking cessation.

Jump to full article »

ABC News' Dr. Tim Answers Questions About Smoking 

Answer: As you might know, Zyban is the same chemical compound as the antidepressant, Wellbutrin -- both are bupropion. Patients have taken Wellbutrin for years at a time without long-term side effects. I recommend my patients to continue taking Zyban indefinitely in situations such as yours. The benefits far outweigh the risks. You can do this more cheaply by using generic bupropion, which, like Zyban, is available in 150 mg tablets taken twice a day. . . .

Question: Is there any other drugs besides Zyban that can help in smoking cessation? My insurance will not pay for Zyban. -- Gary Vornheder, Chicago, IL

Answer: There are a number of other medications. Of course, easiest to obtain are the nicotine patch and the nicotine gum, both of which are over-the-counter. Your doctor can also prescribe the nicotine inhaler or nicotine nose spray, but these are somewhat expensive, and -- if your insurance does not pay for Zyban -- I doubt your insurance will pay for these.

Jump to full article »

Pfizer smoke drug bests Zyban 

Pfizer's smoking-cessation drug varenicline works better than the only currently marketed oral anti-smoking aide Zyban, according to a new study.

Smokers using Pfizer's drug, which the firm plans to market as Champix, doubled their odds of successfully kicking the habit, compared to those taking GlaxoSmithKline's Zyban (bupropion), said a study released Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American Heart Association in Dallas.

Jump to full article »

• Convenience chain seeks fix for nicotine withdrawal 

A BATTLE to sell the nicotine patches Nicorettes has broken out between Queensland-based NightOwl Convenience Stores and pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which wants to restrict the sale of its patches to pharmacies.

NightOwl has lodged a formal complaint with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission claiming Pfizer is inappropriately applying pressure on distributors of its products to restrict its availability outside of pharmacies.

Denying the company was engaging in anti-competitive behaviour, a spokesman for Pfizer yesterday confirmed it had made a conscious decision to retail its Nicorette products only through pharmacies.

"All research shows nicotine replacement therapy only works when it is issued in conjunction with counselling," the spokesman said.

"You're not going to get that through a convenience store.

Jump to full article »

• Independent Effects of Tobacco Abstinence and Bupropion on Cognitive Function in Schizophrenia/ 

Conclusion: We conclude that 1 week of tobacco abstinence is associated with slowed motor speed but is not associated with detectable worsening in performance on a range of neuropsychological tests or clinical symptoms in the subset of patients who were able to quit smoking. We also conclude that bupropion treatment may be associated with improvement in variability of attention.

Jump to full article »

Penn study shows genes may affect response to different quit-smoking medications 

A study by researchers at the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC) of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine indicates that a smoker's genetic make-up may affect whether they quit or not while using either bupropion (Zyban) or nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) such as the nicotine patch or nasal spray. The results appear in the August issue of Neuropsychopharmacology.

"This study provides new evidence that genetic differences in the brain-reward pathways of smokers may reveal whether they would benefit more from Zyban(c) or nicotine replacement therapy as an aid to quitting smoking," said lead author Professor Caryn Lerman, PhD, Director of the TTURC and Associate Director for Cancer Control Population Sciences at Penn's Abramson Cancer Center.

Jump to full article »

Even Light Smokers Need to Quit, and a New Study Shows What Can Help Them 

An article in the current issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence (Volume 77, Pages 311-314) provides new hope for smokers who may think that medicinal nicotine can't help them quit.

Researchers examined data from a previous trial involving 917 smokers randomized to a placebo or to the 2 mg Commit(R) lozenge marketed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare. They found that 2 mg Commit can significantly increase light smokers' chances of quitting successfully. The analysis is the first of its kind that focuses specifically on light smokers, defined as people who smoke 15 cigarettes per day or less, and who smoke their first cigarette of the day more than 30 minutes after waking, an indicator of low tobacco dependence.

In the study, 45.7% of the light smokers using the Commit lozenge were still not smoking after 6 weeks, compared to 31.1% using placebo. After one year, the smokers using the Commit lozenge were almost twice as likely to still be abstinent from smoking.

Jump to full article »

CAPLAN: The "Bupropion for Smoking Cessation" Trial From a Family Practice Perspective 

The randomized trial "Bupropion for Smoking Cessation" is in my opinion a flawed study.1 Bupropion hydrochloride, an antidepressant, functions as an anticraving agent. When one craves cigarettes, the craving does not occur while smoking, but when cigarettes are absent. Nicotine 7-mg patches were being administered during the seventh and eighth weeks; this is equivalent to smoking one third of a pack daily, except that the nicotine was being delivered at a steady rate instead of by bolus. . . .

Long-term success is more related to cognitive behavior modification (including stress reduction), which was apparently well conducted in this trial, rather than to whichever specific method is used to achieve initial success. This is a very worrisome finding because the long-term failure rate was high, despite exhaustive therapy and careful selection of candidates. This makes me wonder if long-term use of bupropion would truly be a more useful add-on to treatment.

Financial Disclosure: Dr Caplan owns shares in Glaxo-smithkline.

Jump to full article »

New drugs show promise in helping smokers to quit 

Is tobacco about to meet its match?

New insights into how nicotine behaves in the body are paving the way for better drugs to help smokers beat their addiction, researchers reported this month at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists' annual meeting in Baltimore.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 70 percent of the nation's 46 million smokers say they want to quit. But fewer than 5 percent of those who go cold turkey manage to stay nicotine-free. Most last less than a week.

Smokers who turn to cessation aids, including behavioral therapy and drugs such as Zyban or nicotine gums and patches, fare better -- but not by much. Fewer than 25 percent of smokers who use cessation aids are tobacco-free after one year. One result: 440,000 Americans die from smoking-related causes every year.

Jump to full article »

Odds of Quitting Smoking Double in a Day for Some Govt. Workers 

What a difference a day makes for the 66,639 employees of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

On November 18, in recognition of this year's Great American Smokeout, the agency begins paying for stop-smoking medicines for any worker who uses tobacco and does not already have health insurance coverage for the medicine. Then on Jan. 1, 2005, HHS will ban any type of tobacco use anywhere on the agency's property.

The drug bupropion (Zyban) and nicotine products like skin patches, gums, and inhalers double the odds of a smoker quitting for good. But due to a lack of information, the cost (about $3 a day for patches), or misplaced fears, most people trying to quit don't use any medicine.

Jump to full article »

Nicotine addiction may go up in smoke 

New insights into how nicotine behaves in the body are paving the way for better drugs to help smokers beat their addiction, researchers reported this week at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists' annual meeting in Baltimore.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 70 percent of the nation's 46 million smokers say they want to quit. But fewer than 5 percent of those who go cold turkey manage to stay nicotine-free. Most last less than a week.

Smokers who turn to cessation aids, including behavioral therapy and drugs such as Zyban or nicotine gums and patches, fare better - but not by much. Fewer than 25 percent of smokers who use cessation aids are tobacco-free after one year. One result: 440,000 Americans wind up dying from smoking-related causes annually.

Jump to full article »

20 per cent youths between 13 and 18 ages are smokers, says top cardiologist 

Prevalence of smoking in Oman among students between the ages of 13 and 18 is as high as 20 per cent and between 23 per cent and 25 per cent among adults, a top private sector health official said yesterday.

Quoting Ministry of Health figures, Dr K. P. Raman, cardiologist and medical director of Al Hayat Polyclinic, said: "The MoH statistics state that a survey done in schools showed that the prevalence of smoking is as high as 20 per cent in students aged 13 and 18 and in adults, the estimated prevalence is between 23 and 25 per cent."

Dr Raman said that Oman was taking many steps to discourage people from smoking. "Some of the steps that they have taken include: Health education to the public, banning smoking in public places, monitoring the advertisements in the right manner, taxing the tobacco product and making it expensive to the public."

Jump to full article »

NHS Watchdog Set to Rule on Anti-Smoking Drug 

THE Government's medicines watchdog was today ruling whether a controversial anti-smoking treatment should be available on the NHS.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence was launching guidance on the use of Zyban or bupropion and other nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs) such as patches, lozenges, inhalers and gums.

NRTs have a somewhat patchwork provision across the country with some health authorities choosing to provide them on NHS prescription and others not.

Jump to full article »

American Legacy Foundation®, and CVS/pharmacy® Join Forces to Help Smokers Quit 

An initiative forged by the American Legacy Foundation seeks to help smokers quit by providing front-end counseling, information on nicotine replacement in the form of a patch, and tips for nonsmokers to support family and friends who smoke and want to quit. The effort will include a series of in-store activities to reach smokers at CVS stores in the Washington, DC, metro area in March and early April.

This initiative is the product of a partnership between the American Legacy Foundation " the nation's only foundation solely focused on tobacco prevention and cessation" CVS/pharmacy, and counselors from the Georgetown University Hospital.

At five metro-D.C.-area CVS/pharmacy stores, counselors with knowledge of the smoking cessation process will provide onsite counseling to consumers and customers. After initial consultations with counselors, smokers can consider purchasing nicotine replacement therapy, offered by CVS/pharmacy in the form of a patch. Consumers will also be able to pick up free information on Circle of Friends: Uniting to Be Smoke-Free, a national grassroots movement that highlights the importance of social support in the quitting process, and the toll of tobacco-related disease on women in the US. Counselors will also refer interested customers to the American Legacy Foundation’s new Stop Smoking Support Line for DC-area smokers. Smokers can call 1-800-399-5589 to begin a quit program and obtain valuable and free telephone counseling.

Jump to full article »