In May of 2006, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the drug Chantix (varenicline tartrate) whose primary purpose the inhibition of receptors for nicotine in the human brain. Chantix has a two-fold role in the brain, it locates itself on the nicotine receptors in the brain and distributes results like nicotine, but at the same time, Chantix prevents nicotine itself from attaching to the nicotine receptors. The approach means no withdrawal symptoms occur and if the smoker goes back to smoking, they will not get the ”high? feeling which nicotine provides otherwise.

Chantix is produced and marketed by Pfizer while Glaxo Wellcome makes Zyban, a non nicotine smoking cessation medication also approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Zyban is the same drug as that marketed as an antidepressant aid under the trade moniker of Wellbutrin. Originally the FDA did not approve the drug at all, but it was reintroduced as an anti-depressant, then as a smoking cessation aid, when doctors noted that many of their patients using Wellbutrin were reducing smoking levels significantly.

Nicotine gums, patches and lozenges are also drug delivery systems for nicotine. The panel is still out regarding whether the use of these drugs can be properly considered as smoking cessation tools. Some would argue that changing delivery modes from smoke to oral ingestion of nicotine is not really solving the problem.

Long term success rates for smoking cessation drugs seem to be mixed. For one thing, it’s difficult to do scientific studies when the control group can tell whether or not they are receiving nicotine because of the physiological effects. Those in the control group usually refused to go on with the test.

Many people are more afraid of the cessation drugs that they are of the nicotine in the cigarettes; others just don’t have the motivation to quit yet. They still are convinced that smoking is pleasurable.

Until the proper preliminaries of determination to quit, understanding why one is smoking and why one should quit are internalized, smoking cessation drugs will not accomplish the task. The best success rate for permanently quitting smoking seems to still be quitting cold turkey, and that takes determination.

If the withdrawal symptoms are feared to the extent that quitting is forestalled, then probably the best choice is to use a mixture of methods, including that of smoking cessation drugs. In this way, the benefits of being smoke free will be applicable sooner.

If you are to stay away from nicotine permanently, statistics show that the most effective method for 80 to 90 percent of ex-smokers is to quit. What is ordinarily an admittedly difficult 3-4 days of withdrawal symptoms can be borne with willpower.

An argument can be made that by cutting down, using less and less nicotine over a period of weeks does not make the eventual dispensation of tobacco products completely, easier, but much more difficult. It merely makes the withdrawal symptoms last longer.

The same argument applies when considering using nicotine replacement therapy. Those who purchase nicotine gum, lozenges or patches have not truly gotten off nicotine; they have merely replaced one form of nicotine for another.

According to the American Cancer Society’s 2003 Facts and Figures, 91.4% of all successful ex-smokers quit entirely on their own. They did not use any alternative methods or treatments, including drugs, hypnosis, nicotine replacement therapy or herb replacement. They simply decided to quit and did so. A 2006 Australian report found that those who quit cold turkey were twice as likely to succeed as other quitters, and 88% of all successful ex-smokers did so by using the ”cold turkey? method.

Proponents of this method emphatically affirm that it is impossible to design a successful scientific study where those receiving a placebo nicotine product cannot tell that they are being given something other than nicotine. For those who sign up for a scientific study in the hopes of receiving free nicotine replacement therapy, and find they are in the control group which receives a placebo, most do not complete the study, which renders the study worthless.

To quit smoking cold turkey is to determine that you have control of your life, and your pack of cigarettes does not. It demonstrates a strength of willpower and commitment that is not found in those who are getting their nicotine through another delivery vehicle.

This is not to say that some other tips are useless in the course of quitting cold turkey; in fact planning ahead, staying focused on the goal, preparing for withdrawal symptoms, planning other activities to engage in during high craving times, garnering support from family and friends are all useful aids in the process of quitting cold turkey. When you truly are determined to change the priorities in your life, you will always be able to find people who care about you enough to offer encouragement to you.