Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT): Safe Usage, Prescription Necessity, and the Role of Comprehensive Tobacco Cessation Programs

• Author Details:   
• Pawan Gupta ^*

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Today tobacco use is the single utmost avertable cause of death in the world. Tobacco use is regularly mistakenly perceived to be exclusively a personal choice. Nicotine is the main active constituent in tobacco products that reinforces individual to tobacco dependence behavior. It is tobacco’s other components which cause widespread mortality and morbidity. Though almost all of the toxicity of smoking is attributed to other components in cigarettes, it is the pharmacological effects of nicotine that lead to tobacco addiction. Therefore, pharmacological interventions for tobacco cessation continue to evolve with our growing knowledge of the neurochemical basis of nicotine addiction. Nicotine is the main alkaloid of tobacco smoke and the principal modulator of the psycho-pharmacological effects associated with addiction. Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) aims to reduce motivation to consume tobacco and the physiological and psychomotor withdrawal symptoms through delivery of nicotine.

Keywords: Tobacco, Nicotine, Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Addiction, Cigarettes