Smoking Cessation Patch Before Quitting

All medications, including nicotine patches, carry warnings to help you avoid overdoses and complications. One of the warnings on the nicotine replacement patch is that it shouldn’t be used if you’re still smoking for fear of nicotine overdose. However, doctors have found that if you start using the nicotine patch before your quit date, you may have a better chance of being successful when you do quit. A quit date is the target date you choose, which is when you’ll stop smoking.

Part of the success of the nicotine as a “pre-quitting” strategy involves using the patch regularly, providing a steady dose of nicotine. Because of that steady dose, the smoker begins to cut back on cigarettes because the craving or need for nicotine isn’t as strong. So, the result is when the smoker does reach the quit date, he or she isn’t smoking as many cigarettes as before, making it easier to quit. This was the finding of a study of 400 male smokers, published recently in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

The group was divided into four subgroups before the quit date: those who used nicotine or placebo patches and those who used their regular brand of cigarettes or low-tar and nicotine cigarettes. After the quit date, all men were given reduced doses of nicotine patches. This went on for 10 weeks.

The researchers found that the quit rate for at least 10 weeks among those who had the nicotine patches before the quit date was double (22%) that of those who had the placebo patches (11%). Although there was little difference in the quit rates among those who smoked their regular cigarettes and those who used the low-tar and nicotine cigarettes, the researchers stated that this may be a good approach for some smokers who could end up with too much nicotine in their system if they were to smoke their regular cigarettes while using the pre-cessation patches.

~~~~

Image courtesy PhotoXpress.com