This drug was popular for a while, but patients stopped requesting or accepting it when the Daily Record published a series of centre spreads about patient deaths on the drug.
The articles were poorly written, unscientific & just plain wrong.
Some very minor changes to the data sheet were made, increasing the time patients were to take 1 tab daily before increasing to 2. There r a long list of interactions & potential side effects, one of the most important is that it can cause depression & should not be given to patients with a past history of depression.
This is interesting because the drug is marketed in the States, in higher dose, as a Prozac like antidepressant.
As far as efficacy is concerned the trials showed it to be more that twice as effective as NRT, it can also be used with NRT to increase success rates.
On the down side everyone in the studies had almost one to one backup & support, this is not available to the rest of us, which I think contributed a lot to the results.
It is certainly a drug u need to chat to ur GP about, but overall I think it definitely has a place.