EFN

According to a new study, smokers who use nicotine patches for longer than the standard eight weeks may go without smoking for a longer period of time.

A research team at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine discovered that 32 percent of smokers who used the patch for 24 weeks were smoke-free, compared with 19 percent of those who wore it for the recommended 8 week period. The research involved 568 adult smokers who for the past year had been in the habit of smoking ten or more cigarettes a day, were given nicotine patches which they used for the entire 24 weeks of the study. Interestingly, the number of smokers who were still smoke-free after a year was amlost the same for both groups.

Robert Schnoll, the lead researcher, said in a statement that the “data suggest that the many smokers who relapse while trying to quit will be especially helped by extended treatment, which appears to make it easier for smokers to ‘get back on the wagon’ … instead of having it turn into a full-blown relapse.”

Schnoll and his team concluded that Extended therapy not only reduced the risk for lapse, but also increased the chances of recovery from lapses.. The team n noted that the extended nicotine patch therapy had a success rate similar to drug therapies, including Zyban and Chantix. Nicotine patches can be purchased over the counter, without a prescription.