Varenicline (Chantix) for Quitting Smoking
How It Works
Varenicline is a pill you take that acts on sites in the brain affected by nicotine. Like nicotine medicines, varenicline helps with craving and Reference withdrawal symptoms Opens New Window. But it also blocks the effects of nicotine from tobacco. If you start smoking again while taking varenicline, the medicine lowers the sense of satisfaction you get from smoking, improving the chances that you will quit.
Varenicline does not contain nicotine and does not help you quit smoking in the same way that nicotine replacement therapy does.
You start taking varenicline about a week before you quit smoking, and you take it for a total of 12 to 24 weeks.
| By: | Reference Healthwise Staff | Last Revised: August 5, 2011 |
| Medical Review: | Reference Adam Husney, MD - Family Medicine
Reference John Hughes, MD - Psychiatry |
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