Extended Nicotine Patch Use Helps Some Smokers Quit
Tuesday, April 20, 2010 - 18:30
in Health & Medicine
(PhysOrg.com) -- Quitting smoking is a hard task for anyone, but tailored cessation therapy may increase an individual`s chance of success, according to Caryn Lerman, PhD, Mary W. Calkins Professor of Psychiatry and Deputy Director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Over the last several years, Lerman and colleagues have found that individuals who metabolize nicotine relatively slowly benefit from nicotine patch therapy more than people who metabolize it quickly. The fast metabolizers do better with drug therapy, such as bupropion (Zyban), as compared with the patch.