CAN you quit smoking with patches and gums?
Are attempts with these quit smoking products successful? Can you find success rates for them? Do they work? Can you quit smoking? I’m sure there are a few who will say yes. I say it is a deceptive practice to say you can.
In fact, the practice is on the smoker with an average of THIRTY tries.
That’s right.
“Understanding that for many smokers it may take 30 or more quit attempts before being successful may assist with clinical expectations.”
To quit smoking with any approved method is a challenge. Why is that? Can you quit with Nicorette® patches and gums? I asked, not so innocently, for success rates with Nicorette® product(s). I was given an 800 number to get personalized attention. Has anyone ever thought to ask as they were purchasing their product? I’m always asking silly rhetorical questions. It’s a hobby.
Will quitting be successful for you?
If they were as successful as commercials and graphics are intended to make you “feel” by helping people quit smoking, wouldn’t they say so immediately? Give me something, like a 94% satisfaction rate. 85% of our customers are smoke-free. Repeat the successful rates of the product to potential customers, not the success of repeat customers trying again. Fine, I’m reaching for the perverbial stars, I suppose.
I’m guessing a 7% success rate.
What are success rates for Nicorette® patches and gums? I don’t know. Nicorette® evidently doesn’t either. It is that time of year, with New Years Eve coming up, ads will be convincing you that you can succeed. Keep trying. Do your best. Their subtle guilt trip illusions are coming.
I asked “What are the success rates with your product” directly to Nicorette®, made by Glaxo-Smith Kline on Twitter. I didn’t think it would be a hard question.
Not that Glaxo-Smith Kline would ever do anything to deter any other method of…..
Can you quit smoking?
People spend hours looking up the reviews on the latest appliance they’re thinking about purchasing, but spend 30 seconds deciding on an “approved” method, because you know, if it isn’t an approved method, it must be (bad, dangerous, unproven, deceitful, not taxable, pharma’s idea) just plain wrong.
There are times in some smokers lives where they either choose to quit smoking, or because of various reasons, want to quit. In my instance, I switched to vaping accidentally. I had, however, tried the patches and gums years before and they just didn’t work.
I didn’t even think to ask the doctor about success rates, I assumed they worked. So does the rest of the world. I’d like to see success rates after 6 months, 1 year, heck, call me crazy, 5 years – with relapse rates. (With all that data-driven stuff people like to blab about). Implying that it works isn’t enough any more. Proof by assertion isn’t enough.
How about real world stuff… still waiting.
I’ll direct you here:
Whistleblower sues GlaxoSmithKline over nicotine product
I am guiding you to this by Amy Renshaw from Vanderbilt University:
The Real Story Behind The Nicotine Patch and Smoking Cessation
DO they work? This article stated “the most rigorous long-term study” said no”.
Mine, where, ~dare I say~ patches and gums do not work because you are not addicted to nicotine itself. You are possibly addicted to the other chemicals or chemical reactions within smoking tbacco, but nicotine “addiction” without tobacco simply does not exist. Period.
There is no data or science showing nicotine “addiction” without tobacco and MAOI’s.
It’s like I’m a mind reader… really….
In fact, (added 12/21/17)
Why Is Smoking Addictive? It’s Probably Not Just Nicotine, Despite What We’ve Been Told For Years
Then this came up 12/22/17:
Nicotine patches and medications aren’t enough to quit smoking, a study finds
I rephrased my question, at the time of publishing this blog, there was no response.
My guess is a 93% failure rate.
Don’t take my word for it.
The patches and gums “may, could, might” work. I would say percentages of success are 7%, and I’m being very optimistic with that. For your own sanity, call the company and ask them about success rates. Ask your doctor. Let me know how they respond.
Here’s one (2009) with “effectiveness”… (Thanks, Jenny!)
Effectiveness and safety of nicotine replacement therapy assisted reduction to stop smoking: systematic review and meta-analysis
One with the Patch (1993)
Effectiveness of a nicotine patch in helping people stop smoking
What about Zyban or Chantix?
Pfizer’s quit-smoking Chantix fails study in adolescent smokers
From my survey:
One with e-cigs (Thanks, Elaine!)
Another with e-cigs (Thanks, Jenny!)
Electronic Cigarettes As a Smoking-Cessation Tool
Effectiveness of Pharmaceutical Smoking Cessation Aids (Thanks, Skip!)
“pharmaceutical aids for smoking cessation, despite strong evidence for efficacy from randomized trials, have not been effective at increasing successful quitting”
I don’t want Nicorette feeling singled out, I also asked Pfizer quite a while ago:
Added 01/01/18
Smokers Willing to Try E-Cigarettes More Successful at Smoking Less, Study Says
Ask your government, they’d tell you, because they care, that every try counts.
Speaking of timing
Here’s Carl V. Phillips with his latest timely post over at The Daily Vaper:
Science Lesson: Smoking Cessation Is Not Medical Treatment
You can see here what the FDA charts with all “approved” methods here:
Added 2/01/2018
Easiest Way to Quit Smoking
This is pretty awesome.
Not only does this wonderful company love you as a group, they are also ready to give you their “personalized attention”.
Easiest Way to Quit Smoking
Added 6/14/2018
I didn’t know there was “preloading” of…. never mind:
No clear evidence that nicotine ‘preloading’ helps smokers to quit
Advertise with YOUR text link or banner!
Have you met my OUR friends at vapers.org.uk?
You can find me here trying to be cordial on Facebook
You can find me here being a bit more evil on Twitter
You can also find me on LinkedIn
Tobacco Harm Reduction For Life
GONZO GIVES
Medical, Research, Science Professionals:
Research:
Politics:
A Billion Lives
There is definitely more to come.
Keep ON #Vaping On.
Kevin
Your comments are NEVER filtered, always encouraged and welcome on this blog.
Vaping Links And More 
The last figures I read for the failure rate of NRT was 96%, but realistically I think it’s nigh on impossible to get an anywhere accurate figure. Whatever, NRT appears to be next to useless.
And the reason they don’t work is as you say – despite all the propaganda soundbites emanating from Tobacco Control, nicotine actually isn’t very addictive at all. Does anyone know someone who is addicted to nicotine gum? Do we go out and buy bottles of pure (and relatively cheap) nicotine and gulp it down? Are we continually upping the dose as we become more tolerant? Has anyone thought it worth developing a ‘Nicotine Crack’ for the underground market?
Of course, the answer to all those questions is ‘No’. Because people don’t smoke just for the nicotine, and nicotine use displays none of the classic symptoms of addiction; it’s far more complex than that. And that’s why the antis don’t get it. They don’t understand why smokers smoke, or why vapers vape. Which is why all their ‘interventions’ are not only misguided, but also always get it horribly wrong.
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Excellent, Nisakiman!
You hit quite a few nails on the head!!!
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Well, even Glantz knows NRT doesn’t work 😉
https://tobacco.ucsf.edu/more-evidence-nrt-without-counseling-does-not-work
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Imagine how hard that must have been for Stan. Imagine the time it took to figure that blog out!
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Quitting smoking is never easy. But a growing number of smoking cessation aids make it easier than ever for smokers to break their addictionto nicotine.
Using patches, you get nicotine soaked into your blood through the skin, which is called the transdermal method and is a beneficial way of smoking replacement.
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