Right Plan Key to Quitting Smoking

(September 16, 2007) -- You've tried gum and patches, medicine and laser therapy, hypnosis and acupuncture.

And, chances are, you will try it again and again before you finally quit smoking for good..

"The same person, over 10 years, might succeed on the seventh or eighth time out," said Dr. Paul Cinciripini who heads up M. D. Anderson's Tobacco Research and Treatment Program.

He's hoping Houston's new smoking ban in bars and restaurants will motivate long-time puffers to try kicking the habit once again. If not for the smoking ban, at least for their health: Smoking remains the top cause of preventable death in the U.S.

The country has about 45 million tobacco smokers, and surveys show 70 percent of them say they want to quit. They can try anything from cold-turkey to a powerful new drug. Here are several ways to give it a try:

• One bright spot: Chantix, a Pfizer-manufactured pill that's the first smoking cessation medicine to hit the market in more than a decade. Studies show taking Chantix is three times as effective for quitting smoking as using willpower alone. Antidepressants that are used to help quit smoking, including Zyban and Wellbutrin, are about twice as effective.

Chantix works by binding itself to a brain receptor tied to the reward function. By sitting on that receptor and occupying space, nicotine can't deliver the desired effect. That takes the edge off for smokers in the process of quitting, but it also means taking a drag isn't nearly as pleasurable when a person succumbs to the inevitable temptation.

• M.D. Anderson has several clinical studies still recruiting smokers who want to quit. Cessation drugs and therapies are provided free of charge and participants are paid for their time. In one study — simply dubbed Quit — smokers are given bupropion (commonly known as Zyban), or varenicline (Chantix) or a placebo. Doctors then genotype the smokers and look at brain activity relating to emotional cues.

Other M.D. Anderson studies include Project Mind, which combined the nicotine patch with meditation, and Baby Steps, a drug-free behavior therapy program for pregnant women. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 11 percent of expectant mothers smoke.

• Nicotine replacement therapy started in the 1980s with gum. Today there are nicotine patches, lozenges, even inhalers, all designed to deliver hits of nicotine to the blood stream without the 69 cancer-causing chemicals found in cigarette smoke. Numerous studies show success with these methods are twice as likely to work as quitting cold turkey.

• Although some people swear hypnosis and acupuncture can do everything from cure migraines to induce rapid weight-loss, studies of its effects on smokers trying to quit are mixed at best. Only a few have been conducted, and many show results on par with taking a sugar pill.

By: Lynn Cook
Source: Houston Chronicle

Last updated: 09/07

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