NRT: underdosing a cause of failure

NRT provide valuable assistance to smokers who want to quit, provided they are chosen sufficiently dosed in early nicotine withdrawal tabagique.Plus three quarters of smokers who quit with willpower alone relapse during the first two weeks recalls Dr. Beatrice Master, tobacco specialist at the University Hospital of Caen.

Counter in pharmacies, nicotine replacement promote smoking cessation and are reimbursed by social security for 50 euros per year per insured if they are accompanied by a medical prescription. They exist in many forms (gum, lozenges, inhalers, patches) and are available in different strengths.

The dosage should be adapted to nicotine dependence level because underdosing makes stopping more difficult and increases the risk of relapse, warns Dr. Master. Regimen depends on the length of the smoker. "Heavy smokers have special needs and need to be well supported, particularly early withdrawal," insists the smoking addiction.

Approximately 30% of smokers consume more than 16 cigarettes daily. The Fagerström test enables health professionals (pharmacist, doctor, tobaccologist) to quickly calculate the dependence score of smoking, with six simple questions like "How long after you wake up do you smoke your first cigarette?" or "you find it difficult to refrain from smoking in places where it is forbidden?".

And for those who are afraid "to leave a dependency for another," Beatrice Master ensures that substitutes provide patients with a "clean" nicotine because it is dangerous in cigarette smoke, she says, "it is 4,000 chemicals the accompanying nicotine as tar, carbon monoxide, cadmium, polonium, etc. ".

In addition, inhaled nicotine cigarette with pass through blood and reaches the brain within seconds, causing a "shot effect" on the origin and maintenance of addiction. Nicotine substitutes diffuse "soft", intravenously, without the risk of addiction. It allows the smoker not be missing, so that his "brain can then be deprogramming smoking habits."

There are 10.5 million smokers over 25 years in France, quoted Dr. Master. According to the International Study Project Victory (ToLuna Greenfield / Nicorette) conducted in 2008 among 3,500 smokers, including 500 French, 78% of smokers said they wanted to stop, or at once (24%) or having reduced their consumption (54 %). And 40% of those who wish to stop planning to use nicotine replacement therapy