Varenicline shows promising results for vaping cessation in first U.S. trial

Newswise — Researchers say the first U.S. trial of varenicline for e-cigarette cessation shows promising results.

A team from Yale School of Medicine and the Medical University of South Carolina published their results May 16 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Participants received 8 weeks of treatment with varenicline or placebo, along with a self-guided vaping cessation booklet and a single counseling session. Researchers say they found a significant disparity between the placebo group and the group receiving the medication.

“We had a 15 percent difference in quit rates, with those in the medication group having a quit rate of 45 percent,” said Lisa Fucito, PhD, lead author and associate professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. Fucito is director of the Tobacco Treatment Service at the Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital.

Varenicline, better known by the brand name Chantix, is FDA-approved to help adults to stop smoking traditional cigarettes, but there are currently no approved medication options for e-cigarette cessation. The research team says vaping devices are more convenient to use, and harder to track usage of, than traditional cigarettes.

“People can get to very high levels of nicotine exposure with these e-cigarette products, and they can use them near constantly throughout the day. So, the question we all have is, ‘Can any pharmacotherapy stand up to this challenge?’” Fucito said.

Previous studies have shown that a majority of people using e-cigarettes want to quit, but researchers say it has been unclear whether products used to stop smoking traditional combustible cigarettes would also work for e-cigarettes.

“We need more pharmacotherapy treatments to help address the really strong physical dependence that can develop from e-cigarette use," Fucito said. "People undergo significant withdrawal when they try to stop, and that withdrawal is so unpleasant and hard to manage with just behavioral support alone."

Benjamin A. Toll was senior author of the study. Study authors included Stephen Baldassarri, Stephanie O'Malley, Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, Nathaniel L. Baker, Amanda M. Palmer, and Kevin M. Gray.