Wellbutrin - Help You Quit Smoking

One of the newest ways to quit smoking is with the quit smoking pill - an antidepressant called Wellbutrin. Its discovery as a quit smoking therapy was accidental. Many of the depressed patients who were treated with this drug simply lost their interest in cigarettes.

Wellbutrin has been used as a therapy for quitting smoking since 1998. Even though we don't completely understand how Wellbutrin works, it has a very good success rate to help you quit smoking.

Wellbutrin is also known as Zyban or its generic name - buproprion hydrochloride. The quit smoking pill, as Wellbutrin is often called, makes patients energized and gives them a feeling of well-being. It is equally effective for depressed and non-depressed patients who want to quit smoking.

Wellbutrin Help You Quit Smoking Therapy

Wellbutrin therapy begins while patients are still smoking. Seven days after they start taking the drug they quit smoking. Patients continue to take the drug for another seven to 10 weeks after that.

Wellbutrin is reportedly safe for long-term use, but if the patient hasn't given up smoking after 10 weeks, the continued use of the Wellbutrin is unlikely to have any benefit.

The quit smoking pill is twice as successful as placebos, but it will not work if the patient does not want to give up smoking. Unless the desire to quit smoking is sincere, smokers are likely to resume the habit after they have finished their Wellbutrin therapy.

The quit smoking pill has a few side effects. It may cause insomnia and a dry mouth, and anyone with a history of seizures, eating disorders, and cirrhosis of the liver should not take this drug.

How Does the Quit Smoking Pill Compare?

Wellbutrin is different from other quit smoking therapies because it is not a nicotine substitute. Other therapies work by substituting the nicotine from cigarettes with steady doses of nicotine from gum or patches.

Wellbutrin seems to work because it gives the patient a feeling of well-being, and this feeling decreases the desire to smoke.

Remember though, smoking is both a physical addiction and a habit. Even when former smokers have overcome the nicotine addiction, they may still feel the desire to light up in certain situations which they associate with smoking.

Nicotine replacement therapies are very effective in overcoming cigarette addiction, because they can slowly wean the smoker from nicotine. They do nothing for the behavioral aspect of smoking.

Wellbutrin, on the other hand, seems to be equally effective in overcoming both the physical addiction and the habit of smoking.

However, once the drug therapy has been discontinued, the desire to smoke may still be felt in certain situations. For this reason, anybody who has used the quit smoking pill is advised to ask for help from family and friends to keep them cigarette free.