Stop Smoking And Antidepressant – Quit Smoking Drugs And Their Side Effects

I wouldn’t be so bold as to put the habit of smoking cigarettes or other forms of tobacco down as a disease, but it sure is close to being one. Especially because it is hard to break that inclination once you are hooked on the substance, there are a lot of ways that have been tried in the past with various levels of success. Some people actually have been able to quit smoking cold turkey, but that really is not very common. For the most part, a good number of people who break the habit end up relapsing before too long.

There are so many ways by which people try and/or succeed to stop smoking, but because of the addictiveness of the narcotic, few people will lay claims on any smoking cessation technique as being guaranteed. However, as you keep working, you may want to consider the idea of certain drugs that can help your smoking cessation program. There are more than a few of them and their use is rather sensitive. As a result, you may have to get a prescription from a certified psychologist before you can purchase most of these drugs.

The antidepressant drug bupropin has been in use to help with breaking the smoking habit for quite a while, and its application for that purpose seems to be growing of late. Basically, as its nomenclature suggests, it is used to prevent or reduce depression in patients suffering from that form of despair. It works by regulating the levels of serotonin that are secreted in your system so that your craving for nicotine – the dangerous addictive substance in tobacco – can be greatly lessened. Bupropin is sold under the brand name Zyban in the United States, and no, you will not get it over the counter.

Other drugs block the effect of withdrawal from the chemicals in tobacco and tobacco smoke. Some, like Scopolamine and Atarax, which block the brain nicotine receptors and ease your physical withdrawal pains as you try to stay off of the substance, are applied intravenously for best effect – the Scopolamine Medicated Anticholinergic Receptor Treatment, SMART, has been in use in that capacity for years.

Other types of drugs that help with quit smoking efforts include Chantix and Atropine, and a number of other neurotransmitter drugs. Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, SNRIs, are mostly also used as depression medications, but they do have some application in helping people to quit smoking, albeit under strict supervision. Drugs like venlafaxine or mirtazapine, which prevent the neurotransmitters serotonin and norephinephrine from binding to nearby nerve cells, have found controversial use in this same department.

Basically, the biggest problem with smoking cessation drugs is the side effects that they have. The chief side effect of such medications is dehydration. Others include nausea, sleeplessness or insomnia, mood alterations, gas, constipation, headaches, allergic rashes, loss of taste, and a number of others. As a result of the severity of some of these symptoms, many physicians actually question the efficacy of these drugs and would much rather have their quit smoking patients on any number of other stop smoking techniques.

But do smoking cessation drugs work? Statistics show that they do. The question is how badly do you want to break the habit? Is it enough to put up with the side effects? Because if it is, you may as well just stay with the program.