Nicotine replacement products double your chances to quit smoking. So we are told in New Zealand  by Quit Line, ASH and the pharmaceutical companies. So the first thing you need to ask yourself is this, double of what.  If you buy one line in the lottery, and then buy a second line you have just increased your chances of winning the lottery. However, the chances of winning still remain slim.

Quit smoking with hypnosis

So if you were to double your chances of quitting smoking by nicotine replacement therapies what does ‘double’ really mean?

To make this claim pharmaceutical companies have to conduct controlled trials and they go something like this. You get 200 smokers, and divide them into two groups, A and B. You tell group A they all have to try and give up smoking today. Then you tell group B they too have to try and give up smoking today, and here, you can also use these nicotine patches to help you do it. After one year they then ask both groups into the lab, give them a blood test for cigarette chemicals, and then total the results of who are free of these chemicals.

If you did the above your results will likely be something like this. For group A you will find about 7 people would have quit at one year. For group B using the nicotine patches you will find about 14 would have quit. There you go, so you have doubled your chances of quitting. From 7% to 14% Sounds okay, doesn’t it?

Except there is a catch no one has told you about. There is also a group C. And group C were given patches too. Except their patches had no nicotine in them. Group C just thought the patches contained nicotine. Instead they were something like everyday sticking plasters. And with just the thought that they were using something that helped them, 12 people in group C quit. (This is called the placebo affect). So lets look at the results after one year
Non smokers after  1 year.  Group A -  No patches  7 Group B – Nicotine Patches – 14 Group  C – Pretend Patches -  12

But there is more. If you use a nicotine patch often the nicotine, will cause a skin irritation, or a tingling sensation. That is, in group B, people will feel like something is happening. Group C doesn’t get this same affect. However if you were to give group C patches that didn’t contain nicotine but still contained something that caused the skin to tingle, (Chilli powder maybe) it is very probably their results would then match that of Group B.

If you used nicotine patches and still find yourself smoking. Don’t worry. Plenty of other people are in the same situation as you.

So if you are looking to quit. there are a range of options to go about. Nicotine replacement products are one. There are quit smoking programs, there is doing it yourself cold turkey and of course there is hypnosis. For more information on using hypnosis to quit smoking contact Paul at Lifestyle Hypnosis.

Flammer, E.,Bongartz, W (2003). on the efficacy of hypnosis: A met-analytic study. Contemporary hypnosis, 179-197.

Viswesvaran C, Schmidt FL. (1992). ‘A meta-analytic comparison of the effectiveness of smoking cessation methods.’ J Appl Psychol.1992 Aug:77(4):554-61