NEW YORK (Reuters Health) -
The anti-smoking drug Chantix
appears more effective than the nicotine patch in helping
people stop smoking, European and U.S. researchers report.

In a study of 746 smokers, the investigators found that 56
percent of those who took for Chantix for 12 weeks were
cigarette-free during the last month of treatment. That
compared with 43 percent of those who used a nicotine patch.

The study, funded by Chantix maker Pfizer Inc., is
published in the medical journal Thorax.

Chantix, also known as varenicline, acts on a brain
receptor affected by nicotine; the drug blocks some of
nicotine's effects, while also providing a nicotine-like “buzz”
to curb withdrawal symptoms.

For the current study, researchers led by Dr. Henri-Jean
Aubin, of Hopital Emile Roux in France, randomly assigned
smokers to either take Chantix for 12 weeks or use a nicotine
patch for 10 weeks.

They found that participants' self-reported abstinence rate
during the last four weeks of treatment was higher with the
drug than with the patch. After one year, 26 percent of the
Chantix group was still abstinent, versus 20 percent of patch
users.

Dr. Paul Aveyard, who wrote an editorial published with the
study, told Reuters Health that while the anti-smoking drug
appears more effective than the nicotine patch and — as shown
in earlier research — the antidepressant bupropion (Zyban),
“it does not mean the competitors are now useless.”

“Stopping smoking is something people need to do many times
before they are free of their addiction,” explained Aveyard, of
the University of Birmingham in the UK. “One person may find
that one medication does not help them, while another does, and
others, the reverse.”

“Besides this,” he concluded, “there are new ways of using
nicotine replacement which means it is likely to be as
effective as varenicline.”

And Chantix is not without its potential drawbacks. In the
current study, more Chantix users than patch users reported
side effects, the most common being nausea — experienced by 37
percent of those on the drug.

And earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) said after an analysis of reports of
suicidal thoughts and behavior potentially linked to
varenicline, it was calling for Pfizer to boost the prominence
of current label warnings on the drug.

“It appears increasingly likely that there may be an
association between Chantix and serious neuropsychiatric
symptoms,” the FDA's Public Health Advisory said in February.

Chantix, approved in 2006, already carries a warning that
some patients have experienced psychiatric symptoms, including
depression and suicidal thoughts, while on the drug.

SOURCE: Thorax, August 2008.