A new study has showed that the medication therapy could be highly effective in boosting the long-term success of smokers who are not ready to quit the habit, but wish to cut back on cigarettes.
The researchers included over 1,500 cigarette and recorded the effects of the prescription medication varenicline (Chantix) for the surging smoking abstinence rates among smokers who wished to cut the number of cigarettes that they smoked before attempting to abandon the habit completely.
Lead study author Jon Ebbert, associate director for research in the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center, said that the new revelations has opened the path to treat nearly 14 million smokers who don’t have plans to quit in the next 30 days, however, they are willing to cut their rate of smoking before finally abandoning the habit.
The researchers involved only those smokers who did not wish to quit smoking in the next 30 days, but who intended to work toward the goal of quitting cigarette smoking in the next three months.
The smokers were randomized to either six months of placebo or varenicline and their rates of continuous smoking abstinence were evaluated at six and 12 months.
During the study, it was found that 760 participants getting varenicline were higher than four times more likely to quit smoking compared to those 750 participants having placebo at six months (32.1 percent vs. 6.9 percent) and more than twice more probably to quit than the participants getting a placebo at 12 months (27.0 percent vs. 9.9 percent).
According to Dr. Ebbert, the smokers must know that varenicline could assist them in helping quit cigarette smoking if they want to cut their smoking before completely giving up the habit. Moreover, it is considered to be an effective and safe method to raise long-term smoking cessation.
The study’s results were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
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