Zyban, Wellbutrin, Bupropion News

Today is the American Cancer Society's 34th annual Great American Smokeout - yet Americans seem determined to hang on to their cigarettes.

The truth about being successful in quitting smoking is that at first, it's perfectly normal not to be successful.

If you're betting that you can quit smoking Thursday during the Great American Smokeout, the odds are against you.

Nicotine patch-lozenge combo helps more smokers quit In the largest head-to-head comparison of medications that help smokers quit, a combination of the nicotine lozenge and patch provided the greatest benefit 6 months after quitting.

In the largest study to date comparing smoking cessation therapies, the use of the nicotine lozenge in combination with the nicotine patch provided the greatest benefit for smokers trying to quit, resulting in over a two-fold better smoking cessation outcome 6 months after quitting compared to smokers who received placebo medication.

Use of Pharmacotherapy for Smoking Cessation in Italy Arch Intern Med. 2009;169 :1927-1928. In a cluster-randomized smoking cessation trial conducted in Germany on 577 smokers, cost-free nicotine replacement therapy or bupropion hydrochloride reduced smoking-related morbidity at low cost.1 This adds to the accumulated evidence that NRT, bupropion, ...

Context Little direct evidence exists on the relative efficacies of different smoking cessation pharmacotherapies, yet such evidence is needed to make informed decisions about their clinical use.

Out of five different smoking cessation methods, the nicotine patch plus lozenges proved to be the most effective, according to research published in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry .

What's the best way to quit smoking -- that works? People can struggle for years to quit smoking and the magnitude of advice and remedies about how to do so effectively can be overwhelming.

Nov. 2, 2009 -- Smokers who want to kick the habit are more likely to succeed when they use a combination of long-acting and immediate-delivery nicotine-replacement products, a study shows.

Knowing the most successful way to quit smoking is essential for people trying to kick the habit, and a new study might provide the answer.

Combining a nicotine patch with an 'as you need it' nicotine lozenge or gum could be the best way to help smokers give up the habit, a new study has found.

In a comparison of five different smoking cessation medications, a nicotine patch plus a nicotine lozenge appears most effective at helping smokers quit, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

People looking to kick their smoking habit are more likely to succeed if they use a combination of long-acting, immediate delivery nicotine replacement products.

The first head-to-head comparison of different quit-smoking products finds that a nicotine patch combined with a nicotine lozenge had the most success.

Drug companies know that a pot of gold is up for grabs if they can only develop a break-through weight loss drug.

Nearly half of patients who completed 56 weeks of treatment with Orexigen Therapeutics Inc's experimental obesity treatment, Contrave, lost at least 10 percent of their weight in a late-stage study and the drug also appeared to help cholesterol and blood sugar levels.

Q: I am trying to quit smoking and someone recommended Chantix to me. I have heard that this drug can cause suicidal thoughts and I am wondering what you know about this.

Editor's Note: In the debut of A Doctor's Word, Dr. Erin Marcus wrote about an African-American man's effort to quit smoking cigarettes.

Smoking cessation drugs may be covered under possible upcoming legislation. The big drug companies have been wary of the Obama administration's push for health care reform.