Extensive use of such as nicotine patches and gums may actually make the problem worse by supporting the cravings at a low dosage that does not relieve the withdrawal craving. Combined with this the fact that you continues to spend money, with nothing to show for it in terms of withdrawal from nicotine dependency.

More conspicuous, the heavy marketing of such quit smoking patches has a similar, unconscious, conditioning effect to the promotion of cigarettes themselves - and you don't want to be hooked on NRT patches forever. At best this leaves the smoker frustrated.

Anti-depressant drugs

Anti-depressant drugs may help easy symptoms of withdrawal. Brupopion (Zyban is the best known trade name) is the most popular, and success rates of up to 30 per cent are not unheard of both as a stand-alone treatment and also in association with nicotine patches supported by guidance or counseling.

In some cases there have been disturbing side effects and it is a quite pricey drug, usually prescribed for a period of some months. The same unaccounted variables as with NRT may apply.

Smokers often have other desires to stop when they undergo an expensive smoking cessation process such as this, and the effect of this cannot be tracked in the published results. As motivation is cited universally as the biggest factor in quit smoking, the results of drug-based stop smoking therapies are not reliable. Most importantly they do not address the habitual behavior and psychological factors involved.

Hardly any studies measure effectiveness more than 18 months in any case, so this is not a measure of permanent withdrawal, with which we are concerned in this article.

Many scientists make similar disclaimers. For example, Schneider et al. highlighted that simply providing nicotine replacement gum or patches actually resulted in a lower quit rate with active gum than with placebo treatment (8% nicotine gum, 13% placebo gum).

In fairness, the product inserts for all transdermal nicotine remedies indicate that it should be used as part of a quit smoking treatment program. Of course most patients simply buy and apply the NRT patches like sticking plaster. Without any behavioral help, we can therefore expect very low quit rates with the nicotine patch.

Drugs are addictive just like cigarettes, of course, and constant attempts of smoking cessation mean repeat sales and more profit. The fact that these profits fund major research programs helps to explain why the truth about the relative effectiveness of quit smoking products does not reach the average smoker.