If this is not your name, click here.
| | If this is not your name, click here. | | |
| | Contact Us | Order Now | Journals | Bookstore | Register a colleague | | |
| |  Low-Dose Naltrexone Does Not Reduce Weight Gain in Smokers Who Quit: Presented at SRNT By Liz Meszaros BALTIMORE, Md -- February 28, 2010 -- Naltrexone does not significantly reduce weight gain after smoking cessation compared with placebo, according to a study presented here on February 25 at the 2010 Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco Annual Meeting (SRNT). Benjamin A. Toll, PhD, Yale University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, and colleagues evaluated treatment with naltrexone for 27 weeks in patients attempting to quit smoking to determine if naltrexone also affected weight gain post quit. The study included 172 smokers who reported concerns about weight gain after smoking cessation, and who believed that smoking suppressed their weight gain. Treatment with naltrexone 25 mg or placebo began 1 week before quit attempt and carried through to 26 weeks after quitting. All patients received brief behavioural counselling for the entire duration of the study. Primary outcomes were change in weight for patients who continuously abstained from smoking and biologically verified end-of-treatment 7-day point prevalence abstinence at 26 weeks after quitting. At week 26, the difference in weight was not statistically significant between the naltrexone and placebo groups (3.1 kg vs 4.4 kg, respectively; P = .47). The weight gain in the placebo group was relatively low compared with that reported in previous studies. Smoking abstinence rates were not significantly different in the 2 groups, but were higher in the placebo group (27% vs 22%; P = .43). “Nevertheless, we conclude that for smokers [concerned with weight gain], the relatively small reduction in weight gain with low-dose naltrexone is not worth the potential for lower rates of smoking abstinence,” the authors wrote in their poster presentation. Funding for this study was provided by the National Institutes of Health and by the State of Connecticut’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services. [Presentation title: Low-Dose Naltrexone Augmentation of Nicotine Replacement for Smoking Cessation With Reduced Weight Gain: A Randomized Trial. Abstract POS2-55]
|
