Free Nicotine Patches can Help in Smoking Cessation

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There are a variety of ways deemed to help smoker quit, but intervention in the form of free mailed nicotine patches could prove to be a good method even if it is not accompanied by behavioral support like counseling or coaching.

This was the result of a new study conducted by Canadian researchers and published Monday in the JAMA Internal Medicine.

"The trial provides evidence of the effectiveness of mailed nicotine patches without behavioral support to promote tobacco cessation," wrote the team led by John Cunningham at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.

Cunningham and his fellow researchers wanted to evaluate the effect of mailing nicotine patches to smokers without behavioral support on quit success rates. For their study, the team randomly contacted thousands of people who smoke at least 10 cigarettes in one day and asked them if they would be willing to try out a free, five-week supply of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) that will be delivered to them via mail.

The volunteers were then divided into two groups: one which the researchers gave NRT, but without any form of additional counseling, and the other which serves as a control group and was not given anything. After half a year, the results suggest that the chance of quitting is more than double among those who received mailed NRT as compared to the other group, wrote Medical Daily.

Dr. Len Horovitz, an expert in lung health and a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, was not all surprised with the findings of the study. "Sometimes smokers simply need access to help and a jumpstart," she said.

Horovitz's sentiment was seconded by Dr. Patricia Folan, director for the Center for Tobacco Control at Northwell Health in Great Neck, N.Y. Folan said that the initiative from smokers to try quitting smoking by voluntarily participating in the study makes all the difference because it is an important first step, says US News Health.

"Both groups in this study, whether they received patches or not, were interested in quitting," she said. "Perhaps the receipt of the free patches was the added incentive needed to actually make the attempt and succeed. The patches may have tipped the scales in favor of trying to quit at a time of great readiness for these smokers."

She also added that while there may be a lot of smokers who would want to ditch their unhealthy habit, most of them were either unable to have access to help or were just not seeking counsel. And, she thinks that these nicotine patches delivered through mail could provide a good alternative for those who are highly-motivated smokers to quit smoking.