Vaping is as effective at helping people quit smoking as a gold-standard pharmaceutical drug, according to a new clinical trial.
The study, published in the science journal JAMA Internal Medicine, compared vapes to the drug Varenicline, also known as Chantix, as an aid for stopping smoking.
After 12 weeks, it found that roughly equal percentages of the 458 smokers who were given the drug and vapes - 43.8 percent and 40.4 percent, respectively - had stopped. The difference in quit rates between the two groups after 52 weeks was also found to be “not statistically significant”.
Participants all smoked daily before the trial and wanted to quit. They were given either a nicotine-containing vape and placebo tablets, Varenicline and a vape without nicotine, or a placebo tablet and a nicotine-free vape. All three groups were also given intensive tobacco cessation counselling.
Downsides of Varenicline
Varenicline is widely considered to be the most effective medical smoking cessation treatment.
The pill works primarily by blocking the receptors in the brain that make nicotine pleasurable. However, the drug is associated with some troubling side effects, including abnormal vivid dreams and insomnia. Availability of the drug has also been spotty around the world due to manufacturing problems.
The JAMA study is the first published randomised controlled trial to compare Varenicline directly to vapes as a smoking quitting aid.
Many studies have demonstrated that vapes can effectively help adults to quit smoking. However, these have compared vapes to a placebo alone, or to nicotine replacement therapy (such as patches and lozenges), which help smokers to manage their withdrawal symptoms.
Trial comes amid vaping bans
The results come as governments around the world are in the midst of introducing strict bans on vapes, based on advice from the World Health Organisation.
“Public health groups are working hard to limit access to [vapes], which is counterproductive to a goal of making more.. stop smoking treatment options available to people who smoke,” said Kenneth Michael Cummings, a professor at the Medical University of South Carolina, and a vocal supporter of vapes as a cessation tool.
It is unclear how the results of the study, which was published on Monday, could differ if participants were given different types of vapes. The trial used a vape loaded with a relatively low concentration of nicotine compared to others on the market.
The trial was conducted in Finland and led by researchers at Lapland Central Hospital.
