A daily tablet to help you quit for good.
Champix is a stop smoking treatment that takes the edge off cravings. It can help you get through the worst of those early withdrawal symptoms.
Champix isn’t available at the moment, but there is an alternative: Zyban. Take our consultation to get expert recommendations on stop smoking treatment.
Champix is a prescription medication that helps manage cravings and other withdrawal symptoms when you stop smoking. It’s a tablet you take every day, and it’s given in 12 week courses. When you successfully stop smoking while taking it, a clinician may give you another 12 week course after the first one, just to make sure the job is completely done.
Before you start taking it, you’ll decide on a date where you stop smoking. This is usually between day 8 and 14 of treatment. You’ll start on a lower dose for the first few days and gradually build up to a maintenance dose by day 15.
Champix isn't available currently. But there is an alternative called Zyban that works in a similar way to help people quit.
Champix works by blocking the receptors in the brain that are affected by nicotine. This means nicotine no longer produces the ‘feel good’ hormone response of dopamine.
With nicotine being blocked, the short term pleasurable effects from smoking which cause cravings are prevented. This makes it easier to avoid smoking until the cravings pass and you can consider yourself a non-smoker.
And if you do smoke while taking Champix, it doesn’t produce the same feeling in the brain, so it helps to make smoking less appealing.
Clinical studies have shown that Champix is effective at helping people quit. People taking it were almost three times more likely to have abstained from smoking after a year of starting it, compared with a placebo. It’s also been found to be more effective than nicotine patches at promoting abstinence during treatment, and at one year following treatment.
Champix can be particularly helpful if you've tried other ways of quitting smoking before but these have been unsuccessful. By managing the cravings and reducing the withdrawal symptoms — the things that most people find difficult when quitting smoking — it increases your chances of success. You’ll still need some degree of willpower, but it can give you that extra bit of breathing space to get through the most difficult moments.
Some research also suggests that combining counseling with stop smoking treatments can help to further increase your chances of successfully quitting.
How we source info.
When we present you with stats, data, opinion or a consensus, we’ll tell you where this came from. And we’ll only present data as clinically reliable if it’s come from a reputable source, such as a state or government-funded health body, a peer-reviewed medical journal, or a recognised analytics or data body. Read more in our editorial policy.
How we source info.
When we present you with stats, data, opinion or a consensus, we’ll tell you where this came from. And we’ll only present data as clinically reliable if it’s come from a reputable source, such as a state or government-funded health body, a peer-reviewed medical journal, or a recognised analytics or data body. Read more in our editorial policy.
Have something specific you want to know about Champix? Search our info below, or ask our experts a question if you can’t find what you’re looking for.
Varenicline for smoking cessation: efficacy, safety, and treatment recommendations. Patient preference and adherence, [online] 4, pp.355–362.
Effectiveness of stop-smoking medications: findings from the International Tobacco Control (ITC) Four Country Survey. Addiction, 108(1), pp.193–202.
Individual behavioural counselling for smoking cessation. U.S.A. Cochrane Library.
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Stop Smoking: Here's what else we have.
Slow-release tablet that gives you steady support with cravings. Nine week course.
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