Made it your goal to quit vaping in 2025? Good news: a team of scientists, including a group from the University of Oxford, claim to have identified the best strategies to help you succeed.
What works best? According to the new review – which examined nine relevant studies involving more than 5000 participants – the answer depends on your age.
For those aged 13 to 24, the analysis claimed programmes designed to deliver support via motivational text messages were the most effective method.
For older groups, the analysis highlighted a prescription medication called varenicline as an effective option. Sold under brand names including Chantix and Champix, the drug works by binding to certain receptors in your brain and releasing small amounts of dopamine, helping to ease nicotine withdrawal by mimicking its effects.
Since November 2024, the drug has been offered by the UK’s NHS as an ‘anti-smoking pill’, aiming to help 85,000 people try to stop smoking each year. Some early (albeit small-scale) studies have suggested varenicline could be a tool for those trying to stop vaping.
“This is an area of research that is in its infancy, but is growing rapidly and organically from people who vape asking about help to quit vaping,” said Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, senior author of the study and assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, in the US.
“We also know that people who use vaping as a way to transition away from smoking are often keen to know how they can safely transition away from vaping without relapsing to smoking, which is really important.”
The scientists behind the analysis, published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, caution that the findings are not definitive, with more research needed.
Currently, varenicline is not recommended by the NHS as an effective route to stop vaping.
In the US, free vaping text message invention programme This is Quitting launched in 2019 and has enrolled 750,000 young people. Texts sent to users include short tips (“Keep your hands busy. Stress balls, binder clips, anything to keep a vape out of your hands!") and motivational messages (“It’s normal to feel like quitting is hard, even if it’s something you really want to do”).
One study of 1,503 teens, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2024, found that participants were 35 per cent more likely to quit vaping nicotine with the help of the programme's text messages.
However, the new analysis points out that the study only examined people aged 13-17. “I think it’s clear that this approach helps young people,” Hartmann-Boyce said. “The question is, is it going to help other populations?”
Dr Alisa Butler, co-lead author from the University of Oxford, also indicated more evidence was needed elsewhere. “We urgently need more research to explore these and other approaches,” she said.
The new review focused on those looking to quit vaping. However, a previous review from the same team claimed there was “high certainty evidence” that using vapes can lead to a better chance of quitting smoking than patches, gums, lozenges or other traditional nicotine replacement therapy.
For health advice on vaping, consult your doctor.
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