Snuffing Out A Smoking Habit

(As reported 3/2/99)
Smoking may still be one of the hardest habits to kick, but quitting may soon get easier. New research shows there may be a way to beat the pack with a treatment trio, reports CBS News Correspondent Elizabeth Kaledin.

Christopher Oldfield is only 26 years old, but a youth spent smoking took his breath away. Now Oldfield has finally found a way to quit.

"This is definitely the best treatment I've tried so far. I don't think I would have been this successful for this long if I hadn't," Oldfield said.

It's a new three-pronged approach, a combination of nicotine replacement, the anti-depressant drug Zyban and counseling.

Dr. Victor Marchione has been trying this anti-nicotine cocktail on patients for about eight months.

"I think this will become the standard for nicotine addiction therapy," Marchione said.

The idea is to blend the benefits of Zyban, a drug that eases the withdrawal symptoms of nicotine addiction, with a nicotine delivery system until the patient is weaned from nicotine.

"This is an exciting moment for both the patient, the smoker and the physician or counselor because we are really doing something that's paying off," Marchione said.

One-third of the nation's 45 million smokers try to quit unsuccessfully every year. But addiction specialist Dr. John Slade says the new combination therapies may even help people who have quit trying to quit.

"When people use a combination of medicines, both nicotine replacement and the antidepressant, along with counseling, the success rate can be from 40 to 60 percent," Slade said.

The catch is the success rate depends on a magic ingredient doctors say will never exist in pill form: willpower. Without that, they warn, efforts to quit smoking can rarely succeed.