Clinical Psychiatry News - Bupropion no help longer term
The antidepressant bupropion hydrochloride does not significantly increase longer-term smoking cessation rates for some patients, despite several recent studies touting its use for this purpose, Dr. Joel A. Simon and his colleagues reported.
In a randomized, blinded trial conducted in the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center of 244 veterans who were moderate to heavy smokers, 121 subjects received a 7-week course of bupropion and 123 received placebo. All subjects were given 2 months of transdermal nicotine replacement therapy and 3 months of cognitive-behavioral counseling, as well as self-help materials.
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During the 7-week treatment phase, conducted Sept. 1, 1998, to March 31, 2001, subjects on bupropion had non-significant increased quit rates, compared with subjects on placebo (64% vs. 57%, respectively). Bupropion users continued to have the edge over placebo users at 3 months of follow-up (57% vs. 47%), although the difference also failed to reach statistical significance (Arch. Intern. Med. 164[16]:1797-803, 2004).
But at 6 and 12 months of follow-up, self-reported quit rates were nearly identical in both groups (about 40% at 6 months vs. about 32% at 12 months).
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