Trial reportThe American journal of drug and alcohol abuse2015
An open-label pilot trial of N-acetylcysteine and varenicline in adult cigarette smokers.
Trial report in The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05903014 (Effectiveness of N-Acetylcysteine in Motivational Enhancement Therapy for Nicotine Addiction), which is not on this map. Cited by 23 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Effectiveness of N-Acetylcysteine in Motivational Enhancement Therapy for Nicotine Addiction: Study on the Dopaminergic Pathways, Changes in Functional Connectivity of fMRI Bold, and Changes in Smoking Abstinence
Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Evaluating N-acetylcysteine for early and end-of-treatment abstinence in adult cigarette smokers.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Trial
- Zonisamide Reduces Withdrawal Symptoms But Does Not Enhance Varenicline-Induced Smoking Cessation.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2016Trial
- The effects of N-Acetylcysteine on frontostriatal resting-state functional connectivity, withdrawal symptoms and smoking abstinence: A double-blind, placebo-controlled fMRI pilot study.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2015Trial
- An evaluation of N-acetylcysteine in a sequential oxycodone and cocaine rat self-administration model.Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Article
- The Potential of N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine (NAC) in the Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders.CNS drugs · 2022Review
- Assessing combined effects of varenicline and N-acetylcysteine on reducing nicotine seeking in rats.Addiction biology · 2022Article
- N-acetylcysteine in substance use disorder: a lesson from preclinical and clinical research.Pharmacological reports : PR · 2021Review
- Interactions of neuroimmune signaling and glutamate plasticity in addiction.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2021Review
- Review
- N-acetylcysteine for the treatment of comorbid alcohol use disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder: Design and methodology of a randomized clinical trial.Contemporary clinical trials · 2020Article
- N-acetylcysteine yields sex-specific efficacy for cue-induced reinstatement of nicotine seeking.Addiction biology · 2020Article
- N-acetylcysteine for cessation of tobacco smoking: rationale and study protocol for a randomised controlled trial.Trials · 2019Article
- Neurobiological and Neurophysiological Mechanisms Underlying Nicotine Seeking and Smoking Relapse.Molecular neuropsychiatry · 2019Review
- Chronic treatment with N-acetylcysteine decreases extinction responding and reduces cue-induced nicotine-seeking.Physiological reports · 2019Article
- Article
- The Winding Road to Relapse: Forging a New Understanding of Cue-Induced Reinstatement Models and Their Associated Neural Mechanisms.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2018Review
- Glutamate Transport: A New Bench to Bedside Mechanism for Treating Drug Abuse.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2017Review
- Association Between Baseline Corticothalamic-Mediated Inhibitory Control and Smoking Relapse Vulnerability.JAMA psychiatry · 2017Article
- The Nucleus Accumbens: Mechanisms of Addiction across Drug Classes Reflect the Importance of Glutamate Homeostasis.Pharmacological reviews · 2016Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundVarenicline (VAR) has demonstrated superior efficacy over other smoking cessation pharmacotherapies, though 50-60% of those treated do maintain abstinence. Some preclinical findings suggest that new nicotine dependence pharmacotherapies should target the glutamatergic system, given its demonstrated role in addiction. Attention has been given to N-acetylcysteine (NAC), which appears to restore normal glutamate signaling in animal models. It is possible that NAC and VAR may work in concert to promote abstinence at higher rates than with either medication alone.
objectiveTo demonstrate the feasibility and safety of co-administering NAC and VAR in nicotine-dependent participants.
methodsParticipants (n = 19) were daily cigarette smokers, and did not need to be seeking treatment. They received 4 weeks of open-label treatment with NAC (1200 mg twice daily) and VAR (1 mg twice daily, following titration) and were assessed weekly for adverse events (AEs), smoking, craving and withdrawal.
resultsSixteen participants reported a total of 40 AEs, and most were mild (88%). The most commonly reported AE was nausea (15%). Medication adherence, assessed via self-reports and pill counts, was excellent (98%). Exploratory analyses showed reductions in cigarettes per day, though point prevalence abstinence at the end of the study was low.
conclusionsThese preliminary data provide the first demonstration of safety and feasibility of the co-administration of NAC and VAR in cigarette smokers. AEs were consistent with those typically reported for VAR and NAC. These data support future efficacy research on NAC and VAR for smoking cessation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.