Scientific Review Reveals Top Three Effective Ways to Stop Smoking

A major new review of evidence by a team of scientists, including a University of Massachusetts Amherst public health researcher, has identified the three best strategies for quitting smoking:

• Varenicline - a prescription drug sold under the brand names Chantix and Champix, among others.
• Cytisine - a plant-based compound not widely available in the U.S. but sold as an over-the-counter natural health product (Cravv®) in Canada and throughout Central and Eastern Europe, and available under prescription in the United Kingdom.
• Nicotine e-cigarettes.

The review, published Sept. 4 in the journal Addiction, was conducted by the non-profit Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group (CTAG) and led by senior author Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, assistant professor of health policy and management in the UMass Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences, and lead author Jonathan Livingstone-Banks, a University of Oxford researcher in England.

Worldwide, smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death, resulting in more than seven million deaths per year. "For people who smoke cigarettes, the single best thing they can do for their health is to quit smoking," says Hartmann-Boyce, a Cochrane editor who conducted research at Oxford before joining UMass Amherst. "However, many people find it difficult to do so. Fortunately, there is strong evidence to support the use of a number of different ways to quit smoking."