Varenicline boosts smoking cessation odds long-term: study

The drug plus counselling beats counselling alone for achieving abstinence, Australian researchers say

Varenicline combined with counselling is effective for quitting tobacco long-term, with smokers maintaining continuous abstinence up to two years, research shows.

The study, the first to evaluate long-term effectiveness of the drug, suggested that those receiving the dual intervention — who smoked at least 10 cigarettes a day on average — were about six times more likely to quit than those who attempted to stop without any support.