According to a new study, smokers may be able to give up smoking, including reducing the risk of picking up the habit again, simply by extending the use of nicotine patches.

The study comprising of 568 adult smokers who for the past year had been in the habit of smoking ten or more cigarettes a day, were given nicotine patches which they used for the entire 24 weeks of the study. It was found that those participating in the extended therapy were twice as likely to kick the habit, as participants who made the standard eight weeks use of the nicotine patches as recommended by the manufacturers, followed by placebo patches for the remainder of the study period.

By the end of the study, 31.6% of extended-therapy participants and 20.3% of those on standard therapy had not smoked in the past seven days. Over 19% of the extended-therapy group and 12.6% of the standard therapy group did not smoke at all during the study.

According to the study published in the 2nd February issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine, extended therapy smokers abstained from cigarettes longer and seemed more likely to refrain from smoking after suffering a relapse.

After one year, both extended and standard therapy groups had similar rates of smoking abstinence i. e. 14.5% and 14.3%, respectively. However, the extended-therapy group was more likely 29.1% to report abstaining from smoking for over seven days in a row during the year, compared to 21.3% of the standard therapy group.

The researchers found the results comparable to those of drugs like Glaxo’s Zyban and Pfizer Inc.’s Chantix, which carry strong safety warnings on their labels, as they can cause depression, hostility and other behavioural changes. Which makes the nicotine patch far safer and more convenient in comparison, as it does not need any prescription and can be bought over the counter.

The researchers have now begun to study how long smokers need to remain on the patch to overcome their dependence, or whether one treatment at a time is better for them.

The extended six-month patch therapy costs $2,482, almost the same as other drug cessation aids, however, only 8.6% of health insurance companies pay the complete cost for nicotine patches, and only 33 states paying for use of the patch by Medicaid patients.

According to the U. S. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking costs over $193 billion each year in health care costs and lost productivity, due to the fact that smoking leads to in lung cancer, heart attacks, strokes, emphysema and other diseases.

The leading preventable cause of death, an estimated 443,000 people die every year from smoking in the USA.