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SRNT: Zyban (Bupropion) Helps Motivate Smokers To Cut Down And Quit
MINNEAPOLIS and ST. PAUL, MN -- March 26, 2001
-- Results from a new study, conceptualized and co-designed by Matthew P. Bars,
MS of the Smoking Consultation Service, found that the nicotine-free drug, Zyban
(bupropion hydrochloride SR), was significantly more effective than a placebo in
helping smokers who were unwilling or unable to quit to first reduce their
cigarette use and then eventually quit. Ultimately, the study may offer
physicians an alternative approach in treating their tobacco-using patients who
have the greatest difficulty in quitting.
The results were presented at the 7th Annual
Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Meeting in Seattle, Washington.
"Certainly, smoking cessation is the clear goal in
treating tobacco addiction," said Dr. Dorothy Hatsukami, one of the authors of
the study and professor at the University of Minnesota. "However, alternative
approaches to usual smoking cessation methods may be necessary for smokers who
aren't quite ready or who are ambivalent about quitting. If we can motivate
these smokers to make a quit attempt and to make the attempt sooner than later,
we can possibly increase overall the population of successful quitters."
During the reduction phase of the study, smokers
who were not considering quitting and had previously failed at least twice were
given bupropion SR or placebo for up to six months and asked to gradually reduce
their cigarette consumption by 50 percent. In the cessation arm of the study, a
target-quit date was set and the smokers were given an additional seven weeks of
treatment.
Continuous smoking abstinence rates at week seven
in the cessation arm were significantly higher in patients receiving bupropion
SR compared with those receiving a placebo (14 percent vs. 8 percent, p=0.03).
Additionally, the median time to make a cessation attempt for patients taking
bupropion SR was 64 days versus 118 days for patients on placebo.
The results of the study show that smokers who are
unwilling to quit can reduce their smoking through the use of Zyban, but more
importantly this reduction can lead to quitting. This approach may be an
alternative for smokers who are not ready to quit and for physicians who are
unsure about how to treat this population of smokers. The ultimate goal is to
get smokers to quit using tobacco products. This study is in line with the
recent Institute of Medicine report that encouraged examination of reduced
smoking approaches as an alternative treatment method.
GlaxoSmithKline funded the study; the company
markets the smoking cessation treatment bupropion SR, which is also known as
Zyban.