Effects of nicotine chewing gum on smoking cessation in routine clinical use.

Abstract

This is a study of the value of(adding nicotine chewing gum to group smoking cessation therapy. The results from three periods of such therapy are compared. In periods I and III treatment included group support therapy and nicotine chewing gum. In period II the group support therapy was identical, but the nicotine replacement chewing gum was, for reasons not provoked by the study, unavailable. The study spans the years 1975–1980 and a total of 2404 smokers. In period I, when the gum was available on a clinical trials basis, 25 per cent of the individuals treated with group therapy including nicotine chewing gum remained abstinent at a 12-month follow-up. This figure decreased significantly, to 18 per cent, in period II when the gum was unavailable, to recover to 25 per cent in period III, after introduction of the gum on the pharmaceutical market. Thus, it is found that routine clinical use of nicotine chewing gum as a complement to group treatment improves the long-term success rate by about one-third, as compared with treatment using psychological methods alone.