Research Findings

We like to keep our patients up to date with any findings from research studies they may have taken part in. If you have been part of a study at the clinic you can check back here to find out what the results were. Depending on the size of the study it is often a long time before we get the full results, but we will text you once they are up on the blog. Below are some of our findings so far.

Tailoring Varenicline (Champix) to individual needs

Why did we do this study? 

The study investigated whether increasing the Champix dose (up to 5mg/day) in smokers who showed no reaction to the standard dose generated a favourable reaction and improved treatment outcomes.

 

What did we find? 
Whilst the increased dose, compared with the standard dose, reduced somewhat the enjoyment of smoking prior to quitting, it had no additional effect on alleviating tobacco withdrawal symptoms or smoking cessation rates at 12 weeks post quit date (26% vs. 23%).

What does this mean? 
Increasing the medication dose did not improve outcomes. We recommend that clinicians continue to use the standard dose (2mg/day).

This study was published in JAMA Internal Medicine. You can read the full article by clicking here (opens in new window).

If you would like to know if you had placebo or active Champix please text ‘TVIN YES’ to 07860023823

If you are interested in further support to stop smoking, please let us know in your text

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Is a combination of varenicline (Champix) and nicotine patch more effective in helping smokers quit than varenicline alone?

In this study we wanted to test whether treating smokers with a  combination of the nicotine patch and Champix would be more effective than treating them with Champix on its own.

One-hundred and seventeen smokers took part. Half of these were given Champix and nicotine patch (16hr/15mg), and the other half Champix and a placebo patch. Both the researchers and participants did not know who received which patch.

Using both the nicotine patch and Champix did not seem to improve much upon using Champix alone. Adding the nicotine patch had no effects on urges to smoke or withdrawal symptoms, and it did not increase significantly the number of people who had successfully quit smoking at 4 weeks (69% for Champix+patch vs. 59% for Champix+placebo) and 12 weeks (36% for Champix+patch vs. 29% for Champix+placebo) after their target quit day. The differences went in the ‘right’ direction but they were not statistically significant  

Both the medications can help smokers to quit, but not much is gained by combining them together.  

The study was published in BMC Medicine, one of the leading medical journals. You can read the full article by clicking here (opens in new window).

We would like to thank all our participants who took part in these studies.

If you are interested in quitting smoking and/or would like to take part in a research study please click here to view our current clinics and research studies. You can also call us on 020 7882 8230 or clinicbookings@qmul.ac.uk