Results of two levels of adjunctive treatment used with the nicotine patch

Abstract

The authors compared 9-, 16-, 26-, and 52-week outcomes for two randomly assigned groups of nicotine-dependent subjects: 1) nicotine patch plus four smoking cessation sessions with a nurse-practitioner giving advice and instruction (n = 36; moderate-intensity condition, MI); or 2) the foregoing treatments plus 16 weekly individual cognitive/ behavioral relapse-prevention therapy sessions (n = 33; high-intensity condition, HI). Patch completion rates were 69.7% in the HI group and 55.6% in the MI group (NS). Self-reported abstinence rates at the four follow-up points were comparable for the two treatment groups; HI: 39%, 36%, 36%, and 36%; MI: 44%, 28%, 25%, and 28%, respectively. There was some indication that MI patients with high nicotine dependence had lower abstinence rates than highly dependent HI patients.