Smoking cessation in men and women

摘要

In this issue, Rose and Behm (1) provide important new insight into pharmacological interventions for smoking cessation targeting individuals who are unlikely to respond to nicotine replacement therapy. Their findings demonstrate the efficacy of combined varenicline and sustained-release bupropion as a treatment for this population. However, the beneficial effect of the combined treatment was limited to male smokers. Given that women have poorer smoking cessation outcomes than men, studies such as this one provide important data to guide further investigations into the neurobiological mechanisms underlying sex differences in smoking cessation treatments.