The current research evaluated the five pharmacotherapy interventions on a range of outcome indices, including 6 month 7-day point-prevalence quit rate, a traditional standard for assessing efficacy of smoking cessation interventions.1 This research also determined whether the medications were efficacious in helping a smoker achieve early success (i.e., being able to quit for a week following the quit date) or any success at all (i.e., being able to establish abstinence for at least 1 day during the first week of a quit attempt). In addition, outcomes assessed whether different medications increased the time to first lapse (the first cigarette smoked after quitting) or the time to relapse (smoking on 7 consecutive days following the quit day) or prevented a lapse from becoming a relapse. These different outcomes may help researchers understand the mechanisms of action of different medications and may be helpful in cessation counseling. For instance, if a medication reduces the transition of a lapse to a relapse (e.g., 18), smokers could be urged to continue medication use despite lapsing.
