How easily smokers can kick the habit may be a matter of their genes, a study released this month by Penn professors shows.
For the nearly one quarter of Penn undergraduates who say they smoke cigarettes, a blood test developed by Penn researchers may reveal how much success they will see with quitting aids like nicotine patches.
This may bring doctors one step closer to providing personalized programs for smokers trying to stop, the study's authors say.
"Current treatments for smoking cessation use a one size fits all model," said Caryn Lerman, the study's lead author and director of Penn's Abramson Cancer Center. "Yet we know that individual smokers smoke for different reasons ... We need to develop ways of tailoring [programs that help smokers quit] to fit the needs of each individual smoker."
Lerman's findings state that whether a person responds better to a nicotine patch or a nicotine nasal spray can be determined through their blood.
"In this particular paper we describe a blood test that tells us how quickly an individual metabolizes the nicotine from their cigarettes," Lerman said. This "would also influence how they metabolize nicotine from replacement therapy."
Those smokers who metabolize nicotine faster are significantly less likely to benefit from a patch -- which maintains a steady level of nicotine in the bloodstream -- and more likely to benefit from a nasal spray, which they can administer when they need it the most.
According to this year's Alcohol and Other Drug Study -- a survey of undergraduate substance use organized by the Office of Health Education -- 25.5 percent of undergraduates smoke cigarettes. Many of those, according to estimates from OHE Director Susan Villari, are 'social smokers,' or those who smoke only at parties or bars.
The number of undergraduates trying to quit, however, is trickier to measure.
"Students who smoke are generally not motivated to quit since they view themselves as social smokers," Villari told the Daily Pennsylvanian when the undergraduate survey was released last fall.
Lerman's study, published this month in the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, shows which smokers will experience the fewest cigarette cravings while using nicotine patches to quit.
Users take a blood test developed by Lerman and her colleagues that shows the rate at which smokers metabolize nicotine. This can aid doctors in determining which patients can benefit from regular nicotine patches and which patients need higher doses of nicotine from alternative therapies.
The test may "improve delivery of existing treatments by learning more about how individual smokers respond to a treatment regimen," Lerman said.
For some smokers who eventually plan on quitting, finding a more personal treatment plan seems like a good option for what they anticipate will be an uphill battle.
College junior Alex King, who says he currently smokes about one pack of cigarettes every day, is planning on quitting in his mid-twenties. He said he would consider taking a test like Lerman's to find the best treatment option.
"I've heard that different [treatments] are better, that if X might not work for you, that Y will," King said. Lerman's test "sounds really useful."
