Nicotine patches and chewing gum are inefficient longterm in quitting smoking, study finds

Nicotine patches and gum are inefficient in the long-term treatment for quitting smoking, even when this type of therapy is combined with psichological counselling, found an American study.

The study, conducted by  Hillel Alpert from Harvard University in Massachusetts, proves that substitutes that contain nicotine, especially patches and chewing gum, are not helping people to quit smoking on the long term compared to the attempt to quit just by sheer will.  

The study was done on a sample of 787 adults who had only recently quit smoking. They were monitored during the years 2001-2001, 2003-2004, and 2005-2006.  

The results of the study show that nearly a third of those who had quit smoking restarted this habit.

Moreover, within this group, researchers found no difference between those who took nicotine substitutes more than six weeks and those who used no therapy.

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Alpert thinks anti-smoking campaigns are more effective and money should be spent in this direction rather than substitutes with nicotine.

Otilia Haraga