A recent article in the Current Pharmaceutical Design by Aubin and others [Apr 2011] discusses first line smoking cessation drugs. It's kind of a where are we now article. It's called "Pharmacotherapy for Smoking Cessation: Present and Future".
In it, they mention the three FDA-approved smoking cessation medications: Nicotine replacement therapy, sustained-release bupropion (Zyban) and varenicline (Chantix/Champix). They state these are recommended for all smokers, even those with psychiatric or addictive co-morbidities. I guess that kind of sums up everything we've said here at Unbiased...
However, they do realize the limited success of these first line smoking cessation drugs. Because of the rather high relapse rate, they go on to mention alternative pharmacotherapies like clonidine and nortriptyline. These would be classified as second line stop smoking medications. Later on in the article, they discuss what is in the pipeline, like the nicotine vaccine.
However, there really isn't anything too new to talk about in this article. Sadly, there just doesn't seem to be any magic bullet in the stop smoking aid arsenal to guarantee the smoking cessation success that so many people desire. Which means only one thing. It's up to the individual to want to stop bad enough, that it doesn't matter which method they use - they'll quit in spite of the method they choose because they are so determined to succeed or so disgusted by the habit. Once you get to that point, it doesn't really matter any more.
