Both Immediate and Delayed Quitters Find Success

Through a secondary analysis of pooled data, researchers found that when smokers try to abstain from smoking, even if they lacked success early on, they can eventually quit. These findings were published on the Web site of the journal Addiction. UW-CTRI’s Doug Jorenby was among the co-authors.

Researchers drew results from two identically designed published studies. A group of 2,052 healthy adults participated in a 52-week study to stop smoking. For the first 12-weeks, participants were given varenicline, bupropion or placebo pills in conjunction with cessation counseling, and then were monitored for the subsequent 40 weeks. Researchers found that, despite hindrances during the first eight weeks of treatment, quit rates increased when cessation treatments continued without interruption.

Successful quitters were participants who attained constant abstinence from smoking between weeks nine and 12 (the last four weeks of treatment). Doug explained that there are two groups of successful quitters. There were “immediate quitters,” Doug said, “and what we, in the paper, called ‘delayed quitters’—the folks who had some experience smoking during the treatment stage but then managed to be smoke free during the last four weeks of the treatment.”

Based on these findings, lead author David Gonzalez of the Oregon Health and Science University Smoking Cessation Center said, “We believe that treatment failure, or success for that matter, should not be assessed until the recommended period of treatment is completed.”