About 36 million Americans smoke cigarettes on a daily basis.
While the profound health risks associated with smoking are
well-known, so too is the difficulty of quitting. Annual quit
rates are less than 4%. Researchers are investigating methods
that may lessen cigarettes’ toxic effects among people unable or
unwilling to quit, such as reducing the number of cigarettes
smoked per day. Two British researchers carefully analyzed a
number of trials designed to reduce daily cigarette use among
smokers with the help of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT).
Their findings, in the July 18, 2007 Cochrane Database of
Systematic Reviews 2007 , showed that smokers using NRT were
twice as likely to cut their daily use of cigarettes by 50% and
more likely to quit, than those given placebo. However, few
smokers maintained the cigarette reduction over time, and blood
levels of carbon monoxide did not drop significantly. About the
Study British researchers scoured the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction
Group Specialised Register for c