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).
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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