Study Throws Light On Chantix Efficacy In Helping People To Quit Drinking
Date: 5th March 2009
After undertaking a careful and detailed study of 20 excessively drinking and smoking adults, Sherry McKee, Yale school of Medicine’s associate professor of psychiatry and colleagues have reached the striking conclusion that the anti-smoking medicine Chantix is capable of restraining the desire for alcohol in drinkers.
After enrolling twenty adults addicted to excessive smoking and drinking, the researchers segregated them into two groups and provided the anti –smoking medicine Chantix to one while placebo pills were administered to the other group for a period of seven days. According to sources, the participants had taken 3-4 drinks per episode and 7-14 drinks on a weekly basis and altogether they smoked at least 10 cigarettes on a single day.
A weeklong follow up was initiated and thereafter the researchers observed that after administering chantix, the smokers addicted to heavy drinking were less inclined to drink. The results of the experiment also revealed that the placebo group took around 2.6 drinks on an average basis while individuals administered with the anti-smoking medicine Chantix opted for only one-half drink in comparison to the participants taking placebo and had also shown less inclination for extra drinks.
Overall, the study results made it apparent that 30% of the participants in the placebo group abstained from drinking while 80 percent people in the chantix group didn’t choose to drink at al.
With chantix inducing a significant reduction in alcohol cravings among the participants, researcher Sherry McKee states that a drug such as chantix (varenicline) that targets shared biological systems in nicotine use as well as alcohol, is an emerging treatment for people afflicted with both these disorders.
The detailed results of the experiment have appeared online in the journal “Biological Psychiatry.”
Source: http://www.themedguru.com/ |
