Australian researchers present potential new treatment option for nicotine addiction

Credit: Zhang Rong, Getty Images

8 July 2024

Smokers seeking to conquer their addiction may have a new treatment option following the results from a clinical trial led by Monash University, which found a combination of varenicline and nicotine lozenges significantly improved smoking abstinence when compared with varenicline alone.

Both varenicline and nicotine lozenges (a form of nicotine replacement therapy) are medications commonly used for smoking cessation. Varenicline is the most effective single therapy currently available for smoking cessation.

The trial, titled ‘VANISH’ (Varenicline and Nicotine replacement therapy for Smokers admitted to Hospitals), included 320 adult daily smokers across five Australian public hospitals. It found that participants treated with both varenicline and nicotine lozenges had 84 per cent greater odds (chance) to abstain from smoking when self-reporting their progress at a 12-month follow up, compared with those taking varenicline alone.

The multi-institutional study was led by Monash’s Centre for Medicine Use and Safety (CMUS) within the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences in collaboration with other leading research institutes, including Monash University’s School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Flinders University and five major Australian tertiary care public hospitals, coordinated by Barwon Health.

As far as the authors are aware, this is the first reported placebo-controlled, randomised clinical trial comparing the efficacy and safety of varenicline alone with the combination of varenicline and nicotine lozenges in hospitalised heavy smokers.

Read more here.