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Glucose, St John's Wort and Nortriptyline: do they help?
Paul Aveyard
Abstract
Nortriptyline, glucose, and St John's wort are three non-nicotine pharmacotherapies of possible use for smoking cessation. Of the three, nortiptyline is proven to be effective by all modern standards of evidence, while glucose has some evidence of efficacy, and St John's wort has little available clinical evidence. This presentation will examine some of the rationale for the use of nortriptyline, but feature mainly the evidence from clinical trials of the drug to examine its efficacy and side-effects. In addition, I will present data from a recently completed clinical trial of nortriptyline as an addition to NRT conducted in UK stop smoking clinics.
The issue with nortriptyline is that the side-effects are considered worse than other medications and this will presentation will look at the side-effect data from this pragmatic UK trial. I will also look at whether the medication is more effective for certain groups of patients and draw out pointers for its use from the data. Glucose has a role in relieving cravings and withdrawal symptoms and the use of glucose in this context and its efficacy relative to other treatments that could be used will be presented. St John's wort may be effective as a smoking cessation aid and data on the rationale of St John's wort, the side-effects and drug interactions will be presented. In addition and if available, I will present data from a current clinical trial of St John's wort in smoking cessation.
Biography
Paul Aveyard is a public health physician and GP. He is a researcher in tobacco addiction prevention and cessation and has been involved in several clinical trials, including a current trial of nortriptyline and St John's wort for smoking cessation.
Paul Aveyard
Senior Lecturer
Department of Primary Care & General Practice
University of Birmingham
Birmingham
B15 2TT
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