User:MathewThorn20

Health Smoking Cessation

A new study is likely to influence the discussion surrounding electronic cigarettes and whether they can be effectively used as a quit-smoking aid. Researchers in New Zealand found that e-cigarettes were about as effective as nicotine patches in helping people in the study quit smoking. Published online September 8, 2013 in The Lancet, the study is the first to assess whether e-cigarettes work as well as an established quit-smoking aid.

The trial included 657 smokers who wanted to quit. For 3 months, 289 of the participants received e-cigarettes, 295 received nicotine patches, and 73 received placebo e-cigarettes, which contained no nicotine. The researchers then followed the participants for 3 more months to determine whether they had quit smoking. They found that 7.3% of those in the e-cigarette group had successfully quit smoking, compared with 5.8% in the nicotine patch group and 4.1% in the placebo e-cigarette group. The differences in results are not statistically significant, meaning each group had about an equal chance of quitting. However, the e-cigarette users who did not quit completely reported smoking fewer cigarettes at the end of the trial. The study’s authors interpret this as a positive outcome, because harms from smoking are generally related to the number of cigarettes smoked as well as number of years smoking.

Safety E-cigarettes look like regular cigarettes, but they are operated by battery. An atomizer heats a solution of liquid, flavorings, and nicotine that creates a mist that is inhaled. The devices are not yet regulated, though the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced its intention to begin doing so. According to Thomas J. Glynn, PhD, American Cancer Society's director of cancer science and trends and international cancer control, e-cigarettes may one day turn out to be a useful tool to help people quit smoking. But until the FDA regulates them and more research is conducted, he says users won’t know for sure what they’re inhaling or how much nicotine they’re getting.

“The results suggest that e-cigarettes may be useful as a cessation tool, but no more so than nicotine patches, which are currently a commonly-used and physician-recommended cessation tool which have undergone years of testing and research. E-cigarettes are still in the early phases of testing.”

Until FDA regulation can provide users with a safety profile and research provides more evidence that e-cigarettes are a safe and effective quit-smoking aid, Glynn says people should stick to an FDA-approved quit smoking medication.