Title

Varenicline for Smoking Cessation in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease

Student Author(s)

Elena Salmoirago Blotcher

UMMS Affiliation

Clinical and Population Health Research Program; Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

Publication Date

2010-01-19

Document Type

Editorial

Medical Subject Headings

Benzazepines; Quinoxalines; Smoking Cessation; Cardiovascular Diseases

Abstract

Despite the decline in cigarette smoking over the past 40 years, self-reported data from the National Health Interview Survey show that 19.8% (43.4 million) of US adults were still smokers in 2007.1 Attempts to quit during the previous year in the general population decreased from 47% in 1993 to 38.8% in 2007, and only 4% to 7% of smokers trying to quit each year will eventually succeed. Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in Western countries, and cigarette smoking has a clear cause-and-effect relationship with atherosclerotic disease with the risk of myocardial infarction (MI) increasing with the number of cigarettes smoked.

Similarly strong evidence indicates that smoking cessation alone can result in a 36% reduction in the crude relative risk of mortality in smokers who quit versus those who do not.5 The risk decreases rapidly: after only 1 year of cessation, quitters have a lower relative risk (RR=0.63) of death from coronary heart disease (CHD) than do nonquitters, which decreases even further (RR=0.38) after 3 years of cessation. Consequently, efforts to find effective treatments to enhance smoking cessation are of great importance.

Rights and Permissions

Citation: Ockene I, Salmoirago-Blotcher E. Varenicline for smoking cessation in patients with coronary heart disease. Circulation. Jan 19 2010;121(2):188-190.

Related Resources

Link to article in PubMed

PubMed ID

20048200

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS