How to quit smoking cigarettes

“Does Chantix really work?”

 ”Tell me the truth, what are my chances?” Frankly, not good. Putting aside for the moment growing concern over FDA acknowledged links between Chantix and suicide, if Chantix (whose chemical name is varenicline) is used as a stand-alone quitting aid without ongoing counseling or support, your chances of quitting smoking for one year are probably less than 1 in 11. But when accompanied by 24 to 25 weekly counseling or support sessions of up to 10 minutes each your chances could rise to 1 in 5 or even 1 in 4.

Yet sadly, Pfizer is today marketing varenicline as having a 44% success rate at 12 weeks, when that figure is really rather meaningless. In clinical trials the treatment period was 12 weeks and heavily supported and counseled users were still under the chemical’s rather amazing influence. If addicted to using an external chemical to steal brain dopamine, how significant is a boast about successfully substituting another chemical that allows continued stealing?

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