How quickly a smoker’s body breaks down may determine which method of quitting is more successful, according to a new study published in the Lancet.
Many Canadians decide to quit smoking on New Years’ Day and studies suggest up to 70 per cent will relapse within a week and 40 per cent within a day. Of those who try to stop without any kind of support system, only three per cent will succeed.
Differences based on genetics
“People are very different in the patterns of smoking that they have,” says Rachel Tyndale, a professor at the University of Toronto, senior scientist at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and a lead author of this study. “Some of this smoking is different based on their genetics.”
ListenSome people metabolize nicotine slowly and they tend to smoke less and at greater intervals, and they seem to have less trouble quitting. Those who break down nicotine at a normal rate tend to be heavier smokers who start earlier in the morning and have a lot more trouble stopping.
Patch or pill?
1,246 smokers of both types were given either patches, a drug called varenicline, or a placebo, to see whether there was a difference in which worked better. After 11 weeks of treatment, researchers found normal metabolizers had twice as much success using a pill than did those using a patch. They were also less irritable and suffered fewer attention disturbances.
Of the slow metabolizers trying to quit, it made little difference to their success whether they used a pill or a patch but they had more side effects with the pill. So the study concluded that normal metabolizers should first try a pill first, and slow metabolizers should start with the patch.
Tests being developed
For now, smokers can’t tell which category they fall into, but work is going on in the U.S. to develop a test to see how fast smoker break down nicotine.
Don’t quit trying to quit, advises scientist
In the meantime, Tyndale suggests that people try hard with one method first. But if it doesn’t work, she says they should not wait to try another, “because it may be that they are genetically wired to respond better to one or other the various approaches that are available.”
Work will continue to try to identify which methods work best on which types of smokers but in the meantime, Tyndale says “quitting at any age increases one’s health and the harm associated with smoking and so we would strongly encourage all people who are smokers to try to stop smoking.”
Every day 100 people in Canada die of a smoking-related illness, according to government statistics.
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