In a new study it is found the nicotine patches seems not to help the pregnant women quit smoking.
Researchers studied 402 women pregnant of 12 to 20 weeks in France and who smoked at least five cigarettes every day. They were randomly selected wether to use 16-hour nicotine patches until giving birth to the baby or inactive placebo patches.
Apart from the patches the women also received counselling to quit smoking. All were assessed on monthly basis.
At the end of the study researchers found only 5.5 percent of the women managed quitting who were given the nicotine patch and among those who were given other treatment only 5.1 percent could quit smoking.
The study is published on the website of BMJ and it says the women in the nicotine patch group were found to have significantly higher blood pressure compared to the other group.
Authors of the study said their study suggests future similar studies should also consider blood pressure effects in the pregnant women.
Dr Ivan Berlin said the results of their study are disappointing and should now also encourage efforts in evaluating new approaches.
Berlin is from Hopital Pitie-Salpetriere-Universite in Paris.
In the accompanying editorial of the study Leonie Brose said counseling was delayed in both the groups during first two weeks and this explains the pregnant women had lower rates of success.
Brose is from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London. She said much greater effort is still needed in similar studies to identify and help pregnant women to quit smoking.
News Source: www.thealmagest.com
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