“Some medicines and e-cigarettes (handheld devices that work by heating liquid that usually contains nicotine and flavourings) can help people to quit smoking for six months or longer” it’s the result of a new Cochrane review published today.
According the authors, for every 100 people, 10 to 19 are likely to quit using an e-cigarette; 12 to 16 using varenicline; and 10 to 18 using cytisine. This is compared to the 6 in 100 people likely to quit when using no medicine/e-cigarette or placebo. People using two forms of nicotine replacement therapy at the same time, for example, a combination of nicotine patch and nicotine gum, seemed to have similar rates of quitting to people using e-cigarettes, varenicline and cytisine.
Nicotine patches alone, another form of nicotine replacement therapy alone (such as gum, lozenge) and bupropion appeared to help fewer people quit but still work better than no medicine/e-cigarette or placebo (8, 9 and 9 people per 100, respectively). Nortriptyline appeared to result in the lowest number of people quitting smoking; for every 100 people using nortriptyline 6 to 11 are likely to quit.
More information about Cochrane review at this link.
Article available in Italian
Cite:
Lindson N, Theodoulou A, Ordóñez-Mena JM, Fanshawe TR, Sutton AJ, Livingstone-Banks J, Hajizadeh A, Zhu S, Aveyard P, Freeman SC, Agrawal S, Hartmann-Boyce J. Pharmacological and electronic cigarette interventions for smoking cessation in adults: component network meta-analyses. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2023, Issue 9. Art. No.: CD015226. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD015226.pub2
