Learn about medications to help you in your quest to stop smoking with Caroline Howard, PharmD
Hello my name is caroline howard i’m the clinical pharmacist at carolina advanced help and today i’m going to spend a few minutes going over the second part of smoking cessation which focuses on the medications that we use like to remind you that medications are very helpful for quitting stopping cold turkey is really hard but using a medication can double your
Chance of quitting successfully you can either use one medication or a combination of medications together first we’re gonna cover nicotine replacement therapy which is like it says you know replacing the nicotine which is what your body has become addicted to so the nicotine patch um is the first thing that we’ll cover it provides continuous nicotine replacement
It only needs to be applied once a day since it does replot does supply a steady stream of nicotine you may find that you need something else for cravings and which we’ll talk about later when you’re picking out the dose this is something you can just buy it may be covered by your insurance but you would need a prescription for that or you can you know just buy
It at the store you’re gonna choose the dose based on the number of cigarettes that you’re smoking and then you gradually reduce the dose over time and there’s instructions on on the boxes of those for how to do that it’s important to rotate the sights you may develop some mild skin rash or irritation sometimes it disrupts sleep and if that becomes a problem you
Can remove the patch at bedtime but only do that if you’re having problems with sleep and do not cut the patches because this could provide could dump out the nicotine in there so that would not be a good thing nicotine gum and this can be helpful if you have i’m kind of oral cravings for a cigarette it’s nice because you can adjust the dose easily by changing the
Number of pieces of gum you need every day it’s important to know that you do not use it like regular gum often people will use it like regular gum and find that it’s not effective and that’s because you’re not getting the right dose of nicotine it’s gonna take about 30 minutes to use up a whole piece of gum we use the chewing park method where you chew it until you
Get a tingly sensation and then you park it in one pocket of your cheek until that sensation goes away and then chew it again and move it to the other side you choose your dose based on the number of cigarettes that you smoke every day information for that is again found on the label if you have problems with your teeth this is not a good option and just to remind
You that it can be used with the appropriate or the nicotine patch we’ll talk about that later the nicotine lozenge is also an option if you need help for oral cravings and the dose can be adjusted as easily as well you’re gonna choose your initial dose based on the time that you have your first cigarette in the morning whether you go ahead and have that right
When you wake up or if it’s later you’re gonna allow the lozenge to slowly dissolve over 20 to 30 minutes so you definitely wouldn’t want to chew this it does deliver a slightly higher rate of nicotine compared to the gum so that’s something to consider if you haven’t had success with the gum in the past the lozenge could be a good option for you the last thing i
Have under here is there’s the nicotine spray and the nicotine inhaler on both of these require a prescription the nasal spray can be irritating and i don’t see that used a lot in practice the nicotine oral inhaler you can see that in the lower right hand corner i’m a kind of mimics a cigarette so some people do like that again that does require a prescription so
Non nicotine options maybe you’re thinking about cessation but you you really prefer to avoid nicotine products so here’s your option so bupropion also known by the brand name zyban or wellbutrin helps change how your body responds to nicotine it’s a prescription medicine that comes in a pill form it is generic it can delay weight gain and since it was originally
Marketed as antidepressant it could be helpful if you have depression before starting it you definitely want to discuss your medical history with your doctor if you had an eating disorder seizure disorder and this would be an medication to avoid he started a week before your quit date and the side effects i think of as insomnia or dry mouth on the insomnia can be
Minimized by taking your second dose of the medicine earlier in the day so varenicline or chantix as the other on prescription pill form that we have i’m a tax in two ways it helps block nicotine receptors but then also partially activates them so that helps with their withdrawal symptoms you do started a week before your quit date i would like to caution you if
You have a mental health disorder definitely need to discuss this with your doctor before starting it and there are some warnings on this medicine about mental health changes i’m including suicide it’s just very important to discuss this with your doctor before starting chantix other side effects some gi disturbances as well as sleep disturbances are very vivid
Dreams have been reported on this medicine combination therapy so combining some of the things we’ve already talked about i finally just find this to be the most helpful for people i kind of like to think of giving you one medicine to provide long-term control during the day either a long-acting nicotine like the patch or be appropriate and then if you’re using
The patch or the be appropriate you could use some nicotine replacement therapy for cravings such as the gum or lozenge and you do not combine nicotine replacement with chantix just like to point that out so thank you for listening talk with your doctor about smoking cessation you’ve got all the tools that you need go for it
Transcribed from video
Smoking Cessation #2: The Medications By Carolina Advanced Health