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May 31st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda THURSDAY, May 31 (HealthDay News) — Smokers’ genes may help
predict whether they’ll respond to drug treatments for nicotine addiction,
a new study indicates.
Researchers analyzed data from more than 6,000 smokers in
community-based studies and a clinical treatment study and found that the
same gene variations that make it difficult to stop smoking also increase
the chances that heavy smokers will respond to nicotine-replacement
therapy and drugs that reduce the craving for nicotine.
“People with the high-risk genetic markers smoked an average of two
years longer than those without these high-risk genes, and they were less
likely to quit smoking without medication,” study first author Dr.
Li-Shiun Chen, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington
University of Medicine in St. Louis, said in a university news
release.
“The same gene variants can predict a person’s response to
smoking-cessation medication, and those with the high-risk genes are more
likely to respond to the medication,” Chen said.
In the clinical treatment study, smokers with the high-risk variants
were three times more likely than those without the variants to respond to
treatments such as nicotine gum, nicotine patches, the antidepressant
bupropion (Wellbutrin is one brand) and other drugs used to help people
stop smoking.
The findings, published online May 30 in the American Journal of
Psychiatry, suggest it may eventually be possible to analyze smokers’
genes in order to predict if they’ll benefit from drug treatments for
nicotine addiction.
“Smokers whose genetic makeup puts them at the greatest risk for heavy
smoking, nicotine addiction and problems kicking the habit also appear to
be the same people who respond most robustly to pharmacologic therapy for
smoking cessation,” senior investigator Dr. Laura Jean Bierut, a professor
of psychiatry, said in the news release.
The gene variants in this study aren’t the only ones involved in
whether a person smokes, becomes addicted or has difficulty quitting, but
they are an important part of the overall nicotine-addiction puzzle, the
researchers said.
“These variants make a very modest contribution to the development of
nicotine addiction, but they have a much greater effect on the response to
treatment,” Bierut said. “That’s a huge finding.”
More information
The American Cancer Society offers a guide to quitting smoking.
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