[Drug aid to tobacco withdrawal]

Persistent tobacco abuse is due to a pharmacological dependence to nicotine and to a psychological dependence to smoking. Tobacco replacement therapies, i.e. nicotine chewing gums and patches, are the only ones that are effective in aiding tobacco withdrawal; they reduce the deprivation syndrome, thereby facilitating smoking cessation and increasing its success rate. The stronger the dependence to nicotine the greater their efficacy. The insufficient results obtained at mid-term prove that replacement therapies alleviate only the dependence to nicotine and that the psychological dependence should not be overlooked.