The Los Angeles Times “Booster Shots” blog reported, “The smoking-cessation drug Chantix (varenicline) may work better if people take it several weeks before trying to quit,” according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.
Investigators gave Chantix to “53 people beginning four weeks before their quit date and throughout the remainder of the three-month cessation period.
That group was compared with people who were given three weeks of a placebo pill followed by one week of Chantix before their quit day and for the remainder of the study.”
Investigators found that those who started Chantix “for a month before the quit date were more likely to be abstinent at the three-month mark: 47.2% were abstinent compared with 20.8% of the people in the placebo group.”
Chantix is not inexpensive, but if it can help you stop smoking, you’ll save money in the long one – and be far more highly healthy.