Think of a key that fits into the lock of your house. If there is already another key in the lock, inserting the new one is obviously not possible. Something similar happens for nicotine. There are specific receptors dedicated to this substance, which explain its activity on the central nervous system and on the entire organism, with effects that also lead to addiction.
So what? So, for those who decide to say goodbye to cigarettes, here is an additional opportunity on the pharmacological front to alleviate the risks of having to request additional cigarettes. Because cytisine, a drug that can be used for this purpose, works exactly like this. It behaves exactly like an agonist (albeit partial and to a much lesser extent than varenicicycline, another medicine indicated in specific cases to help you forget cigarettes) towards the nicotine receptor. And blocking it limits the automatic “desire” for the substance.
What happens, and who needs it
The mechanism thus simply explained is the basis of the regulatory authorities’ choice to make the medicine containing cytisine reimbursable. The indication is for smoking cessation. This is obviously not an absolute novelty, because this treatment was already used, but the dynamics and possibilities of access to the treatment change, which allows for better control of abstinence, obviously not acting on the psychological front (for this the choice of the subject is needed and for this reason the medicine must be used as part of a path defined by the experts of the anti-smoking centres).
The usefulness of the treatment is greater when a person has recently put out their last cigarette, given that initially there is a greater risk of “relapse” into the habit (moreover it is necessary to maintain the results over time). Everything, it must be said, must be framed in an approach that involves the use of various weapons, from counseling to psychological support, as well as drugs.
How it works and how the dosage is organised
In short, for those who are about to quit cigarettes, there is an extra weapon in the multidisciplinary approach. The goal of treatment is to limit the symptoms related to withdrawal, from anxiety to difficulties in resting through irritability. Generally there are no particularly intense side effects, although particular attention is required in subjects who perhaps suffer from various pathologies and therefore must be evaluated by the treating doctor.
The treatment normally lasts 25 days, with a progressive reduction in the frequency of intake. At the beginning (in the first three days) a dosage of one tablet every two hours is expected (up to a maximum of six tablets per day), then it drops to a maximum of five tablets per day until the twelfth day. It then drops further, dropping to a maximum of three tablets per day by the seventeenth day of therapy and reaching one or two tablets per day in the last five days.
The drug does not replace the will
You have to choose to stop. This is essential when you decide to stop smoking. In this sense, thinking about one’s health is fundamental and the drive to seek well-being is one of the mechanisms that most easily push one to abandon the habit. There is one thing that non-smokers often don’t fully understand: to be able to quit you need a very strong will because in addition to fatigue, minor ailments can also occur.
The higher the number of cigarettes, generally, the greater the difficulty in quitting. Stopping tobacco, although differently from person to person, can still cause some problems: especially in the first few weeks you become more irritable, anxious, have difficulty concentrating and may experience headaches, increased appetite (which is followed by weight gain), intestinal disorders and slight insomnia. This is why pharmacological help can help in the de-addiction process. For quitting smoking to be effective over time, you need to start on the right foot. The ideal in this sense is to take action when study and work commitments are less stressful.
Another rule: it is better to quit once and for all rather than slowly reduce the number of cigarettes. As soon as there is a little more tension, we start again as if nothing had happened. Then remember to strengthen your will: smoking is harmful, expensive and in some way enslaving.
