What are the first-choice medications?
All five of the FDA-approved medications for smoking cessation are recommended including bupropion SR, nicotine gum, nicotine inhaler, nicotine nasal spray, and the nicotine patch. But because of the lack of sufficient data to rank-order these five medications, choice of a specific first-line medication must be guided by factors such as clinician familiarity with the medications, contraindications for selected patients, patient preference, previous patient experience with a specific pharmacotherapy (positive or negative), and patient characteristics (e.g., history of depression, concerns about weight gain). Special consideration should be given before using medication with selected populations: those with medical contraindications, those smoking less than 10 cigarettes/day, pregnant, and adolescent smokers.
