Limited evidence for effectiveness of relapse-prevention interventions for smoking cessation

The evidence did not support the use of behavioural treatments to help prevent relapse after quitting smoking (moderate-certainty evidence). This result was the same in all the different groups of people studied. The most promising treatments involved extending treatment with stop‐smoking medicine, in particular varenicline (moderate-certainty evidence). Extending treatment with bupropion did not appear to help (moderate-certainty evidence), and there was not enough evidence on extending treatment with nicotine replacement therapy. Most of the studies used behavioural treatments that tried to teach people skills to cope with the urge to smoke, or followed up with additional leaflets, calls, internet or mobile phone resources, or additional counselling.