Zyban (bupropion), does it help you give up smoking?
Zyban contain the active ingredient “bupropion hydrochloride” and is one of the newest drugs on the market that can help smokers in their battle to give up smoking. Rather than being a nicotine replacement therapy product, it acts in the brain. It does not replace the nicotine that is obtained from smoking a cigarette with but uses bupropion to affect neurotransmitters in the brain stored in nerve cells and are involved in transmitting messages.
Bupropion prevents two of these neurotransmitters, noradrenaline and dopamine, from being reabsorbed back into the nerve cells. Noradrenaline and dopamine are responsible for moderating mood and various other processes in the brain. It is thought that bupropion helps people to quit smoking by increasing the amount of noradrenaline and dopamine free to act in the brain.
Zyban is the trade name of the drug “bupropion” and it was approved as a stop smoking aid in 1997. The same drug, bupropion, was previously and still is known as an anti-depressant and is manufactured under the name of Wellbutrin. The manufacturing of Zyban came about after smokers, who were taking the anti-depressant medication Wellbutrin, declared that they no longer had such a desire or craving to smoke cigarettes. Further research, based upon these claims, found that bupropion was in fact a highly effective tool in helping people to stop smoking.
The starting dose is one tablet once a day for six days, increasing on day seven to one tablet twice a day. There should be an interval of at least eight hours between doses. It is best to take your first dose when you get up in the morning and your second dose at least eight hours later. Try to avoid taking your second dose at bedtime, as difficulty sleeping (insomnia) is a common side effect of the medicine.
Personally I’ve tried everything to give up smoking and I’ve still not tried Zyban, it would have to be the very last thing I try as it does appear to have several side effects I’d rather not risk.
