The effect of aripiprazole on nicotine dependency in patients under methadone maintenance therapy

Abstract

Introduction

The prevalence of smoking in patients under methadone maintenance therapy is high (85–98%). Most of these patients tend to quit smoking, but only a few of them receive treatment or referred to quit smoking. Recent study on aripiprazole, has been shown to reduce smoking.

Aims

The aim of this study was to evaluate aripiprazole on smoking in patients under methadone maintenance therapy.

Material and method

This study was a double-blind intervention study. Patients under Methadone maintenance therapy in 22 Bahman Hospital randomly divided into two intervention and control group. First with the FTQ questionnaire, nicotine dependency assessed in all patients. Then, 6-week aripiprazole administered to intervention group. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 21.

Results

The age range of patients was 67–25 years. Two groups were matched in demographic characteristics. Finally, mean number of FTQ questionnaire in case group before intervention was 8.9 ± 1.4 and after intervention was 8.4 ± 1.6. This difference was statistically significant (P = 0.0007).

Conclusion

The study results show the aripiprazole effect in reducing the desire to smoke in patients under methadone maintenance therapy. The overall level of dependency on nicotine on the basis of test FTQ has decreased. By choosing aripiprazole as adjunctive therapy to quit smoking, by reducing the tendency of patients to smoking, can decrease cardiovascular complications and other problems caused by smoking and we can reduce the mortality rate of these patients.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.