Trial reportPsychopharmacology2017
Benefits of varenicline vs. bupropion for smoking cessation: a Bayesian analysis of the interaction of reward sensitivity and treatment.
Trial report in Psychopharmacology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT00507728 (Pharmacogenetics, Emotional Reactivity and Smoking), which is not on this map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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.
Pharmacogenetics, Emotional Reactivity and Smoking
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Nicotine receptor partial agonists for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Antidepressants for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2020Pooled it
- Personalizing smoking cessation pharmacotherapy using neuroaffective reactivity profiles: A randomized controlled trial.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2026Trial
- Exenatide Adjunct to Nicotine Patch Facilitates Smoking Cessation and May Reduce Post-Cessation Weight Gain: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2021Trial
- The late positive potential predicts contingency management outcomes for cocaine use disorder.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2025Article
- Article
- High hopes? Precision psychedelic addiction medicine.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
- Bupropion decreases plasma levels of asymmetric dimethylarginine and ameliorates renal injury by modulation of Ddah1, Oatp4c1, Oct2, and Mate1 in rats with adenine-induced chronic renal injury.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2025Article
- Smoking cessation pharmacotherapy; varenicline or bupropion?Daru : journal of Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences · 2024Review
- Neuroaffective reactivity profiles are associated with vulnerability to e-cigarette use.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2023Article
- Towards neuromarkers for tailored smoking cessation treatments.Addiction neuroscience · 2023Article
- Antidepressants for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Review
- Efficacy of varenicline versus bupropion for smoking cessation: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Indian journal of psychiatry · 2023Review
- A scoping review of electroencephalographic (EEG) markers for tracking neurophysiological changes and predicting outcomes in substance use disorder treatment.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
- Toward Precision Medicine for Smoking Cessation: Developing a Neuroimaging-Based Classification Algorithm to Identify Smokers at Higher Risk for Relapse.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2020Article
- Levers and barriers to success in the use of translational neuroscience for the prevention and treatment of mental health and promotion of well-being across the lifespan.Journal of abnormal psychology · 2020Article
- The reality of "food porn": Larger brain responses to food-related cues than to erotic images predict cue-induced eating.Psychophysiology · 2019Article
- Evaluation of a Potential Clinical Significant Drug-Drug Interaction between Digoxin and Bupropion in Cynomolgus Monkeys.Pharmaceutical research · 2018Article
- Discovery and development of varenicline for smoking cessation.Expert opinion on drug discovery · 2018Review
- Event-Related Potentials as Biomarkers of Behavior Change Mechanisms in Substance Use Disorder Treatment.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2018Review
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 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
rationaleWe have shown that differences in the level of neural activation to stimuli associated with smoking vs. natural rewards, a biomarker related to reward sensitivity, predict treatment outcome.
objectivesThis paper examined whether this biomarker moderates the impact of bupropion or varenicline on smoking cessation.
methodsPrior to treatment randomization, smokers (N = 180) in a placebo-controlled trial using bupropion and varenicline completed event-related potential recording (late positive potential, LPP) while viewing pleasant (P), cigarette (C)-related, and other pictures. We used Bayesian models to estimate the probability of interaction between treatment and the LPP for both efficacy and comparative effectiveness analyses.
resultsEfficacy analysis showed that smokers with more neural activation to pleasant vs. cigarette-related stimuli (P > C) had a 98-99% chance of achieving greater abstinence than placebo (OR >1.00), using either medication from the end of treatment (EOT, primary outcome) through the 3-month follow-up. Relative to placebo, smokers with higher activation to cigarette-related vs. pleasant stimuli (C > P) had a 99% chance of increased benefit from varenicline at both time points (OR >1), but only 67 and 43% with bupropion at the EOT and 3-month follow-up, respectively. Comparative effectiveness analysis found that smokers with the C > P activation pattern had a 95-98% chance of benefit from varenicline vs. bupropion, while P > C smokers had a 50-58% chance of similar improvement with varenicline at the EOT and 3 months.
conclusionsVarenicline appears to be the treatment of choice for smokers with the C > P pattern of neural activation, while for those showing P > C, varenicline and bupropion have similar efficacy.
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.