What is Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT)?
NRT refers to stop smoking medications that include patches, gum, mouth spray, lozenges and inhalators.
These products replace some of the nicotine you would normally get from cigarettes to reduce cravings and withdrawal symptoms. To give you the best chance of success, it's important to understand how different types of NRT products work.
Patches are a long-acting NRT product, giving you a slow and steady amount of nicotine over time. The other products are fast-acting, which get the nicotine to you quickly, but do not last as long. Using both a patch and a fast-acting NRT product at the same time is known as combination therapy, and it can increase your chances of quitting for good. Chat to your doctor or pharmacist for more information on this approach. NRT tackles the physical side of a smoking addiction, but you may also need to work on your emotional and habit-related reasons for smoking.
You can learn more about NRT in the video below and exploring Quit Victoria's NRT video playlist. Combining NRT with behavioural support can double your chances of quitting for good.