2017 Volume 12 Issue 3 Pages 58-63
Objective: We investigated the contributing factors for clinical response to varenicline, a smoking cessation aid, in male and female patients.
Methods: We included 190 patients from the smoking cessation clinic at the Showa University East Hospital or Showa University Hospital from September 2008 to December 2015. We separated the patients into the success group and the failure group according to the outcome of the 12-week treatment, and then analyzed the clinical factors from medical records in male and female patients, respectively.
Results/Findings: There were 127 male patients and 63 female patients. The 12-week success rates were 74.8% (95/127 patients) and 61.9% (39/63 patients), respectively. For male patients, self-confidence in achieving smoking cessation, underlying hypertension at the start of therapy, and side effects due to varenicline during treatment were factors associated with clinical response to varenicline. On the other hand, we could not determine the significant factors for female patients.
Conclusion: Male patients with a high level of confidence to quit smoking and hypertension have a high probability of successful treatment. Moreover, as the onset of side effects reduced the success rate, we will determine the contributing factors to the onset of side effects in future studies.
