Nicotine replacement therapy

Abstract

Introduction Although products for nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) have been available for over 20 years, they have been excluded until recently from state or insurance based health service provision in the United Kingdom and many other countries. They have therefore not been widely prescribed by doctors who help smokers wanting to quit. Recent changes in funding policy in the United Kingdom and new guidance from the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (which covers England and Wales) mean that NRT products can and should now be made available to all smokers who want to stop smoking. Like other pharmacological interventions for helping smokers to quit (see the next article in this series), NRT is most effective when used in conjunction with behavioural and other types of non-pharmacological cessation interventions.