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Pregnant Women Can't Stop Smoking With Nicotine Patches

by Thilaka Ravi on Mar 12 2014 8:05 AM

Pregnant Women Can
Nicotine patches are of no help to pregnant women who want to stop smoking, reveals a study by researchers in France published by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Tuesday.
Researchers in France asked more than 400 women who smoked at least five cigarettes a day to try either a nicotine patch or a dummy patch called a placebo.

Only 11 women - 5.5 percent - in the nicotine patch group quit smoking by the time they gave birth, compared with 10 women, or 5.1 percent, in the placebo group.

The average birthweight of the babies was about the same in both groups, but blood pressure was significantly higher among the nicotine-patch users.

The scientists, led by Ivan Berlin, a pharmacologist at the Pitie-Salpetriere University Hospital in Paris, said they were disappointed.

The results show that drugs to help wean pregnant women off smoking do not work and "behavioural support" - help from counsellors or quit-smoking groups - remains essential, they said.

Source-AFP


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