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Two great developments have recently been announced for the smoking cessation drug varenicline which is marketed in the UK under the name Champix. Recent independent tests carried out in the United Kingdom have shown that it achieves significantly better results than nicotine replacement therapy in helping smokers to kick the habit.

The tests were carried out at an NHS clinic on over 400 volunteers over the course of four weeks and compared the effectiveness of various smoking cessation treatments. The results showed that the patients who took Champix in their attempt to stop smoking had a 70 percent greater success rate than those who were given just the nicotine replacement treatment. The study also seems to have allayed fears that Champix can cause problems in people with a history of mental illness. Of the people who participated in the trial, 27 per cent were receiving medication for mental health problems. There was no perceived difference between the mentally ill users of Champix and those patients who were deemed mentally healthy.

Dr John Stapleton, who was involved in the research, said that the benefits of Champix for both groups of patients were exactly the same and that Champix was more effective than nicotine replacement thearapy for smoking cessation. He hoped that these results would provide a more balanced argument for the prescription of Champix, which has, in the past, received some bad press. The full results were published in the January edition of the clinical publication Addiction.