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Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) aims in reducing withdrawal symptoms related with smoking cessation by substituting nicotine in the blood. It is available as chewing gum, patches for the skin, inhalers, nose spray, and even in tablets.

From the recent trials, it was found out that all forms of NRT will greatly help smokers who want to quit smoking. Likely, there is no evidence that one form of NRT is better than any other. NRT works with or without additional counseling.

Over-the-Counter NRTs

Nicotine Patches

Are also available by prescription. These release a constant amount of nicotine in the body.

Unlike the nicotine in tobacco smoke which passes almost instantaneously into the blood through the lining of the lungs, the nicotine in the patch normally takes up to three hours in order to pass through the layers of skin and into the person’s blood.

Nicotine Lozenge

It is in the form of a hard candy, and discharges nicotine as it slowly melts in one’s mouth. Eventually, the smoker who wants to quit smoking will take lozenges for 12 weeks until he or she is completely cigarette-free.

Nicotine Gum

Nicotine gum carries nicotine to the brain more quickly than the patch. More likely, the nicotine from the gum will make its way into your system via the blood vessels just under the lining of the oral cavity.

By Prescription NRTs

Nicotine Inhaler

Even though it is similar in appearance to a cigarette, the inhaler delivers nicotine into the mouth, and not into the lungs. It enters the body slower than the nicotine found in cigarettes.

Nicotine Nasal Spray

In this product, nicotine is rapidly absorbed through the nasal membranes and gets to the bloodstream faster than any other NRT products. This trait makes it attractive to some highly dependent smokers.

Other Nicotine Replacement Therapy Products

Aside from products that basically contain nicotine, there are also other nicotine replacements that are non-nicotine inhibitors such as Zyban and Chantix.

Zyban

Zyban was approved to help smokers quit. This drug is available only by prescription, is sold as an antidepressant under the name Wellbutrin.

Treatment with Zyban begins while the user is still smoking, one week earlier the set quit date. Then continued for 7 to 12 weeks. Common side effects include dry mouth, insomnia and dizziness.

Chantix

Chantix, is the newest drug approved by FDA. The active ingredient varenicline works in two ways, first by cutting the bliss of smoking and second by lessening the withdrawal symptoms that direct smokers to light up repeatedly.

The common symptoms that come along include: headache, nausea, vomiting, gas, insomnia, and abnormal dreams.

How Nicotine Replacement Therapy Works

NRT carry nicotine to the smokers’ brain in a slower way than cigarettes do. It helps in damping down the urges to smoke that smokers have in the first few days and weeks after quitting, rather than remove them suddenly.

It gives the smoker the time to break smoking signals in their daily lives, and provide gradual and more at ease exit from his smoking habit.

Hence, smoking cessation process is never easy, and so in order to succeed, aside from nicotine replacement therapy, it is best when you have some form of support, ideally from someone who knows something about how to quit smoking.

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