Page "Smoking cessation" Paragraph 53

Gradual reduction involves slowly reducing one's daily intake of nicotine.

This can theoretically be accomplished through repeated changes to cigarettes with lower levels of nicotine, by gradually reducing the number of cigarettes smoked each day, or by smoking only a fraction of a cigarette on each occasion.

A 2009 systematic review by researchers at the University of Birmingham found that gradual nicotine replacement therapy could be effective in smoking cessation.

A 2010 Cochrane review found that abrupt cessation and gradual reduction with pre-quit NRT produced similar quit rates whether or not pharmacotherapy or psychological support was used.