NRT helps smokers quit gradually

Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) can help smokers quit gradually over time, new research claims.

Smokers are twice as likely to give up cigarettes in the long-term if they use the treatment to help them cut down steadily, stated the report published on BMJ online.

Findings show half of UK smokers try to stop every year, but only two or three per cent succeed – and experts suggest one of the reasons for this is the shock of trying to quit so abruptly.

These smokers, the authors said, could have more success by following nicotine assisted reduction to stop (NARS) programmes.

Researchers enrolled almost 3,000 smokers who were given NRT for six to 18 months.

And almost seven per cent achieved six months of sustained abstinence ? twice the proportion who were given placebos.

The authors claimed their study is important because “it shows that treating a population of smokers not ready to stop means more of them stop.”

It is therefore important to consider how NARS can be incorporated into existing tobacco control programmes, they concluded.