Title
Varenicline for Smoking Cessation in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease
UMMS Affiliation
Clinical and Population Health Research Program; Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine
Date
1-19-2010
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
PubMed ID
20048200
Repository Citation
Ockene, Ira S. and Salmoirago Blotcher, Elena, "Varenicline for Smoking Cessation in Patients with Coronary Heart Disease" (2010). Clinical & Population Health Research. 29.
https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/gsbs_cphr/29