Article skips over weaknesses of nicotine replacement

doi:10.1136/bmj.39275.964514.BE

BMJ 2007;335:112 (21 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.39275.964514.BE

Letters

Managing smoking cessation

Article skips over weaknesses of nicotine replacement

The first 100% of the full text of this article appears below.

Aveyard and West state that the Allen Carr Easyway method showedabstinence rates similar to those expected from behaviouralsupport alone, quoting McRobbie et al instead of the two cohortstudies mentioned.¹ ² They omit two studies which found persistentabstinence in half of the cohort, in some of which nicotinereplacement had failed.³ ⁴ Even more serious is the omissionof the risks of nicotine replacement to the fetus which werereviewed recently.⁵

Manfred Neuberger, professor

Department of Preventive Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Kinderspitalgasse 15, A-1095 Vienna, Austria

manfred.neuberger@meduniwien.ac.at

Competing interests: None declared.

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