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Nicotine patches do not help pregnant women quit smoking, a new study says.
Pregnant women in the study who used nicotine patches were just as likely to continue smoking until their delivery date as women who used a placebo, the researchers said.
"Clearly, standard dose nicotine patches do not work in pregnancy as well as they do in the general smoking population," study researcher Tim Coleman, of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.The new study is the largest of its kind to address this question.
The findings support the current guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that advise pregnant women against using nicotine patches because they have not been shown to help with quitting, said Dan Jacobsen, a nurse-practitioner at the Center for Tobacco Control, part of the North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Great Neck, N.Y.
Instead, pregnant women who smoke should use other strategies to quit smoking, Jacobsen said, including stress management. Jacobsen's center has incorporated social media into smoking cessation therapies, using text messages to encourage and support pregnant women as they try to quit.
Smoking during pregnancy can lead to a number of health complications for the baby, including miscarriage, premature birth, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
The study involved 1,050 women who were 12 to 24 weeks pregnant and smoked five or more cigarettes per day. Half of the women were randomly assigned to receive a nicotine patch for eight weeks, and half received a placebo patch.
After one month, the patch seemed somewhat effective: 21.3 percent of women in the nicotine patch group had refrained from smoking, compared with 11.7 percent of placebo group.
But this effect did not last. By delivery, 9.4 percent of women in the nicotine group had quit smoking, compared with 7.6 percent of the placebo group, a difference small enough that it could have been due to chance.
Very few participants actually kept up with their treatment. Just 7.2 percent of women in the nicotine group and 2.8 percent of women in the placebo group continued wearing their patchesfor more than one month.
The number of stillbirths, miscarriages and babies of low birth weight were similar in both groups, the researchers said.
Some women metabolize nicotine 60 to 120 times faster during pregnancy, which may reduce nicotine levels in their bodies and increase withdrawal symptoms. A higher nicotine dose may be needed for the drug to be effective in pregnant women, the researchers said.
Women included in the study had characteristics of people who are highly addicted to cigarettes, Jacobsen said. For instance, the majority smoked their first cigarettes within 15 minutes of waking. (The shorter the time between waking and the first cigarette, the more addicted the person is, Jacobsen said.) It's not clear whether less addicted individuals would respond better to the therapy, Jacobsen said.
Because so few women in the study adhered to the nicotine patch therapy, more research is needed to confirm it does not cause health problems in infants, the researchers said.
The study is published in the March 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
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The patches don't work especially well for anyone; they have an abysmal long-term success rate under 10%. If you really want to quit smoking but can't handle cold turkey, try an e-cig. Those things work - plain and simple.
Smoking (or using other nicotine delivery systems) during or after pregnancy is just like DRUG abuse -- it should be classified the same: child abuse. You are poisoning your baby, who has no choice but to endure this abuse.
If you're addicted to nicotine, get 100% clean (and stay clean) before getting pregnant, and don't allow anyone to smoke around your kid(s) or pollute the air with secondhand smoke.
Yes, because scaring pregnant women away from getting prenatal care or being truthful about their smoking habits will have great benefits to their children.
ttmadison, like it or not pregnant women are people too and care a lot more about their future chidlren then you do. We cannot legislate how a woman takes care of her own body without harming both women and their future children by creating a barrier to prenatal care.
How about finding ways to be supportive and help women quit rather then scaring them away from doctors or even confirming that they are indeed pregnant.
If you're unable to quit smoking while pregnant, you have no business becoming a parent. Any woman who puts nicotine above the health and well-being of her unborn child should be forced into having an abortion since she's obviously unfit to become a mother.
To quit smoking (or any other drug) requires willpower, determination and perseverance, all of which are qualities sorely absent from those addicted to anything whether its nicotine, alcohol or food. These are the lowest forms of human life...weak, crippled, diseased individuals unwilling and unable to overcome their lazy, laizze-faire attitudes and addictions.
Successful people don't go through life needing a crutch.
There is a difference between a physical addition and a psychological one. And there are plenty examples of successful addicts. You must be too young to remember a time when pretty much everybody smoked.
How far can you see from on top of that pedestal? Might want to get a higher one.
Sheesh, talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water. Forced abortion? Seriously, Jenny? Sounds like you may need a little something to take the edge off . . . I'd recommend a double bourbon with a Marlboro chaser.
Brian, what the hell does AGE have to do with this? Just because once upon a time "everybody smoked" doesn't justify anything. Please give me an example of a "successful addict" who isn't/wasn't famous because in my world, rock star behavior isn't the norm.
I see just fine from my pedestal thank you very much...so well in fact, I even managed to make out the lowly worker ants like you below me.
PDK, please tell me what the difference is between killing a fetus slowly through cigarettes and alcohol as opposed to a quick death via abortion?
I'mjustintyme, I feel sorry for you for having had such losers as parents but commend you for being strong enough to overcome the addictions and bad habits bestowed onto you by them.
No thanks, darlin'. Besides, what difference would the opinion of a lowly worker ant like me make to a clearly superior and exalted being like you? Hahaha. Narcissists amuse me . . . to a point. You have a good day, your highness.
Holier then thou and stupid. When everyone smoked that included all the successful people as well. Obama smoked when he was elected. Is POTUS a successful enough example for you!
PDK...what's the matter? You get called out and can't answer the question, so you resort to sarcasm? That's because you know there's no difference between smoking while pregnant and having an abortion since BOTH LEAD TO THE DEATH OF THE FETUS.
Brian, you've given a very poor response. Not only is Obama a famous person (and I specifically asked for an example not involving a famous person), but he's also not very likely to ever be pregnant. And the only thing Obama's been "successful" at is driving up our national debt and trying to implement socialist measures. Quite the invalid answer.
He's famous NOW. He wasn't famous as he built a very successful career as a smoker. And I'll ignore the part about how he can't get pregnant since you just added that qualification and implies that only women can be successful by your definition.
And what part of 'when most people smoked that included the successful people as well' don't you understand. You think that when most people smoked it was only the non-smokers who built this county?
I can't make the logic any simpler for you so don't expect another response. If you can't understand those two then you never will.
Considering the article is about pregnant women and smoking, I don't see how Obama fits into the equation, nor how the building of our great nation bears any validity to the subject at hand.
@Jenny
How is Brian supposed to provide an example of a successful addict who wasn't/isn't famous? Wouldn't the only people that the both of you know be, by definition, famous?
Also, while smoking during pregnancy is obviously bad for the fetus, it doesn't kill it like an abortion would. There are plenty of children born to parents who smoked (even parents who smoked crack) who went on to live long lives.
Nope. I simply choose not to waste my time addressing and/or debating absurdities. Like I said, narcissists amuse me, but only to a point. Peace out.
OMG! Nicotine is almost as additive as heroin. I can't believe there is not a warning for pregnant women to NOT use them. I can't believe that a developing brain would not be somehow affected by a steady dose of nicotine. Who the hell is running things over at the FDA. Anyone?
i would actually say that nicotine is more addictive than heroin, just my personal opinion. but youve got a good point.
Jenny you are obviously one of those "holier than thou" people who has never been unfortunate enough to have made a bad decision nor have a moment of weakness that resulted in a physicaladdiction that has haunted you since. I was barely a pre-teen and had a parent that was a smoker. On what was basically a dare, I "borrowed" a few cigarettes and smoked them. That was all it took. A few years later, at 14, that same parent started buying me my own cigarettes so theirs didn't keep disappearing. Now, 35 years after that dare, with the help of prescription medication, I have finally successfully put the smokes away. May you never have to suffer through such an addiction. I wouldn't wish it on anyway, even someone as horribly judgemental as you.