New research suggests nicotine could actually be used to help long-time smokers kick the habit.
Researchers are looking at a method that could help smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) quit without having to go cold turkey, the University of Kansas Cancer Center reported. Nicotine stimulates reward pathways in the brain, which is why it is hard to use the drug in moderation. Now researchers are working to determine if smokers would quit if they were still allowed to have nicotine.
"A common misconception is that nicotine causes cancer," said Ed Ellerbeck, co-leader of The University of Kansas Cancer Center's Cancer Control & Population Health Program, and chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at The University of Kansas Medical Center. "It does not. Nicotine is terrible because of its addictive properties."
A research team is dividing hundreds of smokers with COPD into two groups: one of which will received 12 weeks of conventional smoking cessation counseling (involving cold turkey quitting with the help of a drug) and 10 weeks of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and another that will receive a year of NRT in combination with five counseling sessions that focus on quitting slowly. The participants in the second group will have access to as many nicotine products (gum, patch, etc.) as they want. To analyze the effectiveness of these methods, researchers will test the participants' urine for NNAL, a chemical found in tobacco but not nicotine in hopes of finding the nicotine products are doing the trick.
"We sometimes say smoking is a personal choice," Ellerbeck said. "We blame the victim of smoking and say they make this choice; however, it usually was made when they were a teenager and now their brains have been wired to this addiction. Quitting becomes a very difficult option so we're trying to think of it more as a chronic disease with this research."
