August 10, 2010 - Much of what we know in terms of using snus, a form of smokeless tobacco, to quit smoking comes from self-reported studies which do not offer much evidence.  However, a study published in Oxford University’s Nicotine & Tobacco Research Journal, “The Use of Snus for Quitting Smoking Compared with Medicinal Products,” attempted to gain more knowledge on this subject by analyzing data from self-reports of smokers who attempted to quit using snus, nicotine patches, nicotine chewing gum, bupropion (Zyban), and varenicline (Champix).

Researchers randomly selected 14,744 Norwegian men between the ages of twenty and fifty from a national representative web panel and sent them a questionnaire asking about their smoking status and what smoking cessation method they used during their last quit attempt and whether or not they were able to successfully quit smoking.  From the 7,170 men who responded, researchers analyzed data from the self reports of the 1,775 men who reported being former smokers and the 1,808 men who reported being current smokers.

Analysis of this data showed that respondents were more likely to report total abstinence after using varenicline (OR =4.95) and snus (OR=2.68) compared to those respondents who had used nicotine chewing gum (OR=1).  These results suggest that varenicline and snus increase the likelihood of smoking cessation compared to the use of other medicinal nicotine products.  However, results from this study also showed that 62.4% of smokers who used snus during their last quit attempt also reported that they still used snus at the time of the survey (43.8% used snus daily and 18.6% used snus occasionally), whereas only 9.5% of respondents who used medicinal products in their last quit attempt reported still using them at the time of the survey.  Therefore, while snus may increase the likelihood of successful quit attempts, it may also maintain nicotine dependence suggesting that using snus as a smoking cessation drug may be far from ideal.

For more information please visit: http://ntr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/12/8/817