In adolescents and young adults, the nicotine substitute increases the period of abstinence but does not ensure a complete cessation of smoking at the end of the treatment.
Quitting smoking is a challenge that may seem insurmountable to some smokers. A randomized clinical trial was conducted between 2012 and 2017 on American smokers between 14 and 21 years old. The experiment was to assess the efficacy and safety of varenicline in adolescents and young adults. Varenicline is a molecule that binds to nicotinic receptors and is used to promote smoking cessation. At the end of their study, they realized that this product was well tolerated but that it did not ensure a complete cessation of smoking at the end of treatment.
In the report published on October 14 by the American journal Jama Pediatrics, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina found that varenicline, combined with weekly cessation counseling for adolescent cigarette smokers, was well tolerated compared to placebo, but did not improve the abstinence at the end of treatment. However, varenicline may accelerate abstinence and improve post-treatment abstinence outcomes.
Faster withdrawal period with varenicline
In this 12-week randomized clinical trial, 157 teenagers volunteered to test a method to quit smoking. The researchers administered varenicline to 77 of them while the other 80 received a placebo. During the experiment, both groups received weekly advice to quit smoking. At the end of the experiment, the researchers found that the drug had been well tolerated by the participants, but that the rates of withdrawal at the end of the treatment did not differ between the two groups.
However, reports indicate that secondary results suggest that varenicline helped smokers quit earlier and resist better during treatment and in post-treatment follow-up. This means that, compared to placebo, varenicline was well tolerated by adolescent smokers but did not improve their withdrawal at the end of treatment.
Smoking is one of the leading causes of preventable morbidity and mortality worldwide, and most smokers start smoking in adolescence. Although advances have resulted in effective pharmacotherapies to supplement smoking cessation counseling in adults, much less progress has been made in controlling adolescent smoking.
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