Lozenge Plus Patch The Best Way To Quit Smoking

November 3, 2009 7:14 a.m. EST

Madison, WI (AHN) - A new study suggests that the nicotine patch combined with the nicotine lozenge is the most effective way to quit smoking.

The researchers with the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention and the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, gave 1,504 adult smokers one of six quit-smoking treatments.

They were given either the lozenge, the patch, sustained-release bupropion (an antidepressant), the patch and the lozenge, bupropion and the lozenge or a placebo.

The researchers said in their report that the combination of the lozenge and the patch had a 40 percent quit rate after six months.

The study is published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.