Extensive use of such as nicotine replacement patches and gums are likely to make the problem worse by supporting the cravings at a fairly low levels that does not relieve the withdrawal craving. Combined with this the fact that the smoker continues to spend not insignificant amounts, with nothing to show for it in terms of defeating nicotine dependency.

Not so obvious, the heavy marketing of such smoking cessation aids has a similar, unconscious, conditioning effect to the promotion of smoking itself - and you don’t want to be hooked on quit smoking gum forever. At best this leaves the smoker bewildered.

Anti-depressant drugs

Anti-depressant drugs are known to help withdrawal. Brupopion (Zyban as it’s also know as) is the most common, and success rates of up to 30 per cent are not unheard of both as a stand-alone remedy and also in association with nicotine patches supported by guidance or counseling.

In some cases there have been disturbing side effects and it is a fairly expensive drug, usually prescribed for a period of some months. The same unaccounted variables as with NRT may apply.

Smokers often have other desires to stop when they undergo an expensive quit smoking treatment such as this, and the effect of this cannot be monitored in the published results. As motivation is cited universally as the single most important factor in quitting smoking, the results of drug-based quit smoking programs are not reliable. Most importantly they do not address the habitual behavior and psychological factors involved.

Few studies measure effectiveness for anything much beyond 18 months in any case, so this is not a measure of permanent withdrawal, with which we are concerned in this article.

Many scientists make similar disclaimers. For example, Schneider et al. highlighted that simply issuing NRT products actually resulted in a lower quit rate with active gum than with placebo treatment (8% nicotine gum, 13% placebo gum).

To be fair, the product inserts for all transdermal quit smoking treatments indicate that it should be used as part of a stop smoking program. Of course most patients simply buy and apply the nicotine patches like sticking plaster. Without any behavioral help, we can therefore expect very low quit rates with NRT patches.

Drugs are products just like cigarettes, of course, and constant attempts of giving up smoking mean repeat sales and more profit. The fact that these profits fund major research programs helps to explain why the truth about the relative effectiveness of stop smoking remedies does not reach the average smoker.