Among the many factors that can contribute to successful smoking cessation, medications such as Champix and Zyban appear to increase the likelihood of maintaining a continuous six month period of abstinence. This is according to a recent article in the journal Addiction, which claimed that smoking cessation is more likely to be successful if using medication.
The study, which included interviews with 2550 smokers from UK, Australia, USA and Canada, found that individuals using medications such as Champix were six times more likely to sustain their abstinence than smokers who had gone “cold turkey”.
The biggest problem that we encounter in helping patients giving up smoking is that they stop the medication too soon. Champix is supposed to be taken for 12 weeks and we recommend that patients complete the course. We see so many people who stop the medication as soon as they quit and they are back on the cigarettes before too long. Champix is a serious medication and it does work if used properly.