Restrictions lifted on nicotine replacement therapy
Pregnant women have traditionally been a hard-to-reach group |
Pharmacists have welcomed the announcement that children aged over 12 years and women who are pregnant or breast feeding can now use nicotine replacement therapy (NRT).
The Department of Health decision to lift the restrictions on NRT to
these patient groups, as well as those who have heart, kidney or liver
disease, diabetes mellitus or are taking concurrent medicines, follows
a recommendation from the Committee on Safety of Medicines.
In a letter to health care professionals, Gordon Duff, chairman of the
Commission on Human Medicines, advises that diabetic patients should
monitor their blood glucose levels more closely than usual when starting
NRT. In addition, he notes that NRT product information to date has detailed
interactions that may occur as a result of stopping smoking, rather than
starting NRT. He writes that the only significant interaction that may
be directly attributable to NRT is with adenosine.
The CSM’s recommendation, according to the DoH, was based on strong
evidence that it is “far more harmful” for these groups to
continue smoking than to use NRT.
London pharmacist Andrew McCoig who has been offering smoking cessation
services to patients for about five years said: “This decision
is long overdue. In the past I have really had to wrestle with young
people to give up. Pregnant women have also been a hard-to-reach group
with 25 per cent of them continuing to smoke when pregnant.”
The announcement was also welcomed by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
President, Hemant Patel. He said: “This announcement means that
pharmacists will be able to help more people give up. It also recognises
that for the vast majority of people the well-established dangers of
smoking far outweigh any risk from NRT.
“I hope that primary care organisations everywhere will support
pharmacists to make a greater contribution to the smoking cessation work
they are
doing.”
A leaflet explaining the new NRT product information will be made available
to pharmacists, GPs and NHS smoking cessation clinics ahead of the details
being updated in treatment packs. The information is also available from
the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency website
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