{
  "abstract": "Cigarette smoking remains a major risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), as well as lung cancer, cardiovascular disease and other disorders. Despite general awareness of the harmful effects of smoking and evidence that smoking cessation significantly reduces the risk of COPD progression,1 symptoms,2 exacerbations3 and mortality,4 continuing smokers with COPD remain more resistant to smoking cessation in the absence of effective treatment than smokers without COPD. This difference in resistance to smoking cessation is evident from comparison of the placebo groups from randomised clinical trials (RCTs) of bupropion5 or varenicline6 7 in smokers from the general population versus RCTs of bupropion8 or varenicline9 confined to smokers with mild to moderate COPD, which illustrate lower sustained quit rates among the latter COPD cohorts. These findings are consistent with evidence that people with COPD tend to have heavier nicotine dependence, more depressive symptoms and lower self-efficacy, which can make quitting harder.10 In contrast, smokers with COPD participating in the above-cited clinical trials who were assigned to either active pharmacological agent, bupropion or varenicline, exhibited comparable sustained abstinence rates to those found in smokers in the general population,5–9 indicating that smokers with COPD are similarly responsive as smokers in the general population to pharmacologically active smoking cessation drugs.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "UCLA, Los Angeles, California, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Donald P Tashkin"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine UCLA Health Sciences, Los Angeles, California, USA"
      ],
      "name": "Kathryn H Melamed"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Comparative efficacy in smokers with versus without COPD: a new addition of an old drug to approved pharmacotherapy for smoking cessation",
  "uid": "8884a31f-44bb-565a-bb4a-94a4ee6b6945"
}