What Doctors Don't Tell YouNicotine patches are ineffective in the long term as an aid to stop smoking, concludes a new study. Originally intended to assess the safety of the patches in heart patients, the study found that the rates for death, heart attacks, cardiac arrest or
However, an unintentional aspect of the research was insight into the efficacy of nicotine patches. Although they appeared to work well within the first 14 weeks, the rates of abstention among patch users fell significantly from 21 per cent to 14 per cent after 24 weeks.
For more on nicotine patches see WDDTY vol 6 no 10.
Daniel Redwood DC
Tom Ferguson MD
