CESSATION OF LONG-TERM NICOTINE GUM USE - A PROSPECTIVE, RANDOMIZED TRIAL

Nicotine gum is an important adjunct for smoking cessation for many sm okers, and long-term use of nicotine gum will occur in a small percent age of patients. To date, no method of cessation in long-term users ha s been studied in a randomized trial. We enrolled 26 subjects at the M ayo Clinic site of the Lung Health Study who had used nicotine gum for more than 6 months to participate in a trial where subjects were rand omly assigned to: (1) abrupt cesation, (2) tape with placebo gum, or ( 3) taper with active gum. At the end of the 6-week trial, the percenta ge of subjects abstinent from gum use and not smoking was not differen t among the three groups: 66.7% for the abrupt cessation group, 71.4% for the taper with placebo gum group and 60% for the taper with active gum group. One subject in the taper with placebo gum group relapsed t o smoking during the trial but was abstinent from smoking again at lon g-term follow-up (median 284 days) showed 65% of subjects were abstine nt form all nicotine products. Motivated subjects can stop long-term n icotine gum use without relapse to gum use or smoking by either abrupt cessation or brief tapering.