Smoking Drugs

Smoking Cessation Drugs - Some Good Info

2009-09-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

Smoking cessation drugs can help ease the symptoms of smoking and nicotine withdrawal. These drugs come in two catagories: over-the-counter medication and prescription medication.

Over-the-counter smoking cessation drugs include products like nicotine patches, nicotine gum, and nicotine lozenges. These are nicotine replacement aids, which means you use them as soon as you stop smoking cigarettes or using tobacco containing products such as chew or snuff. Many of these smoking cessation drugs start treatment with a higher dose of nicotine and you "step down" the dose over time so that you do not experience severe nicotine withdrawal.

Prescription smoking cessation drugs include the drugs Zyban (bupropion, Wellbutrin) and Chantix (varenicline). These can only be prescribed by your doctor. They are medications that block the nicotine receptors in the brain, therefore helping you not want to smoke or use tobacco. If you do use cigarettes while taking these prescription smoking cessation drugs, it will not be as pleasurable for you. These drugs are first taken while you are still using nicotine in order for the medication to build up within your body and start working. Once you have taken these types of smoking cessation drugs for a couple of weeks, you will then stop smoking and hopefully no longer feel the need to smoke. Then you will work with your doctor to taper off of the prescription.

It is always a good idea to work with your doctor and inform him or her of your intention to use smoking cessation drugs. Your doctor can tell you whether or not any of these drugs will have an interaction with drugs or over-the-counter medication you are currently taking. He or she will also help you decide how long you should take the smoking cessation drug, which can help you quit smoking for good.

How stop smoking drugs work

2009-08-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

Apparently stop smoking drugs like Chantix work by blocking the pleasure receptors in the brain that nicotine triggers. So this is why Chantix may make it easier for you to stop smoking.

So when you're taking stop smoking drugs, you stop getting pleasure from cigarettes at all because the drug is satisifying the happy receptors in the brain. This doesn't, however, stop the actual habit of the smoking. I want to smoke after I eat, so I'm going to have to replace that habit with something else. I have been chewing gum to try to give my mouth something to do.

Zyban anti smoking drugs

2009-08-30T15:20:00.000-07:00

The stop smoking drug Zyban is a prescription medication designed to help smokers quit more easily than without the drug. It comes in a pill form. The stop smoking drug was found to be effective in treating the smoking addiction, and helping smokers quit. It is made by GlaxoSmithKline.

With Zyban, you continue to smoke when you first start taking the medication, eventually reaching a quit-date, and taking the drug for a period of time after quitting. This helps you ease out of the smoking habit while the drug helps the desire to smoke to lessen over time.

Zyban now has a warning on the label though that says that people taking the drugs should be closely watched for signs of suicidal thoughts, depression, hostility, or other changes in behavior. While most of these side-effects have been noticed with Chantix (another one of the stop smoking drugs) the FDA is worried that Zyban could carry the same dangers.

Find anti smoking drugs

2009-08-29T15:10:00.000-07:00

I have been doing internet searchs to find anti smoking drugs, after looking at over-the-counter smoking drugs. I guess that there are two popular prescription smoking drugs: Zyban and Chantix.

Those two smoking drugs come with a lot of health warnings though, and I'm not sure that I want to try them. The FDA says that these anti smoking drugs will now carry warnings about the risk of severe mental health problems. Great. They say that quitting smoking is one of the hardest things to do and I am looking for smoking drugs to make things easier, but if it creates more problems I'm not sure it's worth it!

Quit smoking drugs & stop smoking support

2009-08-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

In addition to using a stop smoking drug to quit smoking, I read that it is good to change some behaviors that I associate with smoking. So if I normally smoke after I eat (I do), I should try to find something else to do after I eat to retrain my body to stop smoking so much.

So I've read one of the ways to retrain my habits would be to spend most of my free time in places that I don't associate with smoking. So the first few days/weeks of quitting smoking I shouldn't go to bars where I would normally hang out with people who smoke cigarettes. Instead I should spend more time in places where smoking isn't allowed (which let's face it is most places nowdays). Some ideas are libraries, museums, theaters, department stores, and church.

Also I've read that it makes it easier to quit smoking if you surround yourself with other people who are supportive of my quitting smoking. So I'm trying not to hang out so much with friends who smoke. Easier said than done, right!

Welcome to the anti smoking drugs site.

2009-08-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

This is my quest to find effective anti smoking drugs. I have been smoking for 10 years. When I was in college I thought that I would just smoke cigarettes socially at parties, and that when I would finish college I would be able to stop smoking easily. That didn't happen. Instead I have been out of college for 6 years and I'm still smoking cigarettes!

I have been searching for smoking drugs to make the quitting process easier but it has been a hard and long search. Most stop smoking drugs are various nicotine-replacement therapies, sold by prescription and over the counter in gum, patch, lozenge, nasal spray or inhaler form. I will use this blog as a way to review the various stop smoking drugs.