| |
Quit smoking, this drug can help
11 Sept. 2006
You can buy Chantix online and see
if it can help you kick your age-old vice
Reuters reports that quitting smoking with a new drug called Chantix
may be more effective than the existing drugs on the market. It says that
the new drug has an edge in helping smokers kick the habit, and it may
also promote longer-lasting abstinence. It quotes the results of three
studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week.
But this is not an all-accomplishing formula. As the related editorial
goes, the drug is no panacea for people wishing to quit smoking. “There
are some important gastrointestinal side effects and, in the current studies,
most people given the drug actually did not quit smoking,” co-author
Dr Robert C Klesges, from the University of Tennessee in Memphis, said.
Chantix, the first prescription anti-smoking
drug in over a decade, belongs to a different drug class than other
agents currently used for smoking cessation. It stimulates sufficient
dopamine release to curb cravings while blocking the reinforcing effects
of smoked nicotine, the report goes.
The drug, which is marketed by Pfizer Inc, received FDA approval in
May last. The Reuters report informs, in two of the Pfizer-sponsored studies,
Dr Karen R Reeves, from Pfizer Global Research and Development in Groton,
Connecticut, and colleagues compared the effects of Chantix (varenicline)
against those of an existing formulation that helps in secession of smoking
and placebo. In the third study, Chantix was tested against placebo in
maintaining abstinence from smoking.
In the first study, 12 weeks of Chantix was associated with an immediate
abstinence rate of 44 per cent, significantly higher than the 29.5 per
cent and 17.7 per cent rates achieved with the existing drug and placebo,
respectively. The second study was similar to the first except this time,
the abstinence rate at 1 year was significantly higher with Chantix compared
with the existing medicine. The third study showed subjects who remained
on Chantix had a continuous abstinence rate from weeks 13 to 52 of 43.6
per cent, significantly higher than the 36.9 per cent rate seen in the
placebo group.
|
