A new study found that cigarettes with a lower amount of nicotine could help smokers reduce the frequency of their smoking and even possibly help them to quit, Reuters reports.
The study, conducted from July 2013 to July 2014, involved 840 participants ages 18 years or older. The chosen participants smoked at least five times a day and did not show any inclination to quit smoking. For the study, they were given either their usual cigarette brand or the reduced nicotine cigarettes, which had 15 percent less nicotine than typical cigarettes, for six weeks.
At the end of six weeks, the researchers observed that participants who smoked the lower nicotine cigarettes smoked 23 to 33 percent less compared to others. Their dependence on the substance also dropped by 20 percent. On the other hand, those who got their usual dose of nicotine still had the same amount of cigarettes daily.
The researchers said that those with reduced smoking frequency did not show much discomfort from the withdrawal.
The reduced nicotine cigarettes used in the study were not the same as the "light" cigarettes on the market, which did not really have lower nicotine content but were designed to make it more difficult for smokers to inhale the substance. Smokers who used these kinds of "light" cigarettes eventually learned the trick on how to inhale the nicotine in a more effective way.
"This is a very different approach, and this one might make smokers less dependent on cigarettes and better able to quit," lead study author Eric Donny at the University of Pittsburgh told Reuters. "These cigarettes don't have much nicotine in the tobacco itself, so no matter what the user does, it's just not there to extract."
A month after the six-week period, the researchers found that 35 percent of those who smoked lower nicotine cigarettes attempted to quit smoking in the 30 days since their trial.
Matthew M. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said the results of the study should compel the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to consider imposing limits on the nicotine content of cigarettes. The FDA, which funded the study, had been authorized by Congress to "explore whether there is a level below which nicotine yields do not produce dependence," according to the Los Angeles Times.
"Policymakers ... should take note of this study," Dr. Sean P. David, physician at Stanford Medical School who was not involved in the study, told the Los Angeles Times. "When so many people are dying from the results of smoking the most addictive drug known to man, a bias towards action seems well justified."
The study was published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
