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The UK’s NHS to roll out free antismoking pill. Will it work? (www.aljazeera.com)

submitted 4 days ago by theMacerena@lemmings.world to c/world@quokk.au

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The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) is rolling out a free antismoking pill called varenicline for British smokers. Research has shown that varenicline is more effective than traditional nicotine-replacement therapies such as gum or patches.

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[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Nicotine receptor agonists work and they helped me quit smoking but you still need plenty of willpower. Removing friction might or might not work but cost wasn’t a big part of consideration once I decided to quit.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, I mean it's not debatable if it works, it's been around a long time.

It's not like 100% effective obviously. I think normal cessation rate is like 2%? And this gets it as high as 6%.

So like, compared to cold turkey it's insanely effective, 2-3x is huge. But 6% isn't like it's a magic pill that lets everyone quit.

It's just something that tickles the same receptor so you don't miss nicotine until you're past the psychological addiction

[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

It's just something that tickles the same receptor so you don't miss nicotine until you're past the psychological addiction.

You definitely miss it but you can’t relapse unless you stop taking pills. You decrease the dose and number of cigs to zero over a period of month and hope that it’s enough to overcome most severe withdrawal symptoms.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

but you can’t relapse unless you stop taking pills.

Wildly untrue.

[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 0 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I meant that you won’t be getting anything out of that nicotine while taking pills.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Still not true tho...

Receptors aren't binary, there's like millions of those fuckers, no one is taking enough of this to keep all their nicotine receptors bound 24/7.

Even if we could do that, it's a terrible plan for a whole bunch of reasons.

And not everything binds the same way for the same amount of time, and obviously don't have the same effect. If there's nicotine and this medication floating around, it's not an orderly line, it's random what binds. So smoking can still give an effect.

Like, this reminds of the time someone asked me:

Why don't we send an astronaut up to the Hubble telescope, and have them check if Climate Change is just the Earth moving closer to the sun?

There's just so much wrong with what you're saying and it feels like you have no background knowledge about how any of this actually works to build on to explain it.

If you want to understand this, you'd be best off just reading the Wikipedia for this medication, specifically the method of action.

[–] misk@sopuli.xyz 0 points 4 days ago

Obviously it’s not possible to block everything but subjectively speaking it blocked quite a good deal. While taking cytisine tablets all that nicotine does is make you nauseous and even if it does anything it’s not enough to offset massive adverse effects of smoking that you’re suddenly feeling. This effectively stops you from being able to enjoy nicotine at all.