Genes Predict If Medication Can Help You Quit Smoking
Date: 4.6.2012
The same gene variations that make it difficult to stop smoking also increase the likelihood that heavy smokers will respond to nicotine-replacement therapy and drugs that thwart cravings, a new study shows.
The study suggests it may one day be possible to predict which patients are most likely to benefit from drug treatments for nicotine addiction.
"People with the high-risk genetic markers smoked an average of two years longer than those without these high-risk genes, and they were less likely to quit smoking without medication," says first author Li-Shiun Chen, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University. "The same gene variants can predict a person's response to smoking-cessation medication, and those with the high-risk genes are more likely to respond to the medication."
In the clinical treatment trial, individuals with the high-risk variants were three times more likely to respond to drug therapy, such as nicotine gum, nicotine patches, the antidepressant buproprion and other drugs used to help people quit.
