E-Cigarettes For Smoking: The Advice Just Changed

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NaMDXONZRJM

Watch this short video for a quick breakdown of the new research on nicotine e-cigarettes here.

For years we advised patients that vapes can cause lung injury and we should not be using them for patients who want to quit smoking. A new Cochrane review just showed that they might be the best option we've got. Better than NRT...if they contain nicotine

After reviewing 80 RCTs (n=29,861), the authors concluded that e-cigarettes with nicotine result in increased quit rates compared to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). For every 100 people that try them, an additional 4 people will successfully quit with nicotine e-cigarettes (vs. NRT). Better than behavioural support... Maybe The benefit in this group is less robust; the nicotine e-cigarette users were more successful, but only 2 out of every 100.

Doesn't it cause harm?

No serious harm was found in this evidence review. But...and no surprise here... Longer-term studies are still needed. Hopefully the advice doesn't change yet again!

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Refrences

Electronic Cigarette Vaping - Vape Cloud [photograph]. Lindsay Fox. Wikimedia Commons. 2016. CC BY 2.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Electronic_Cigarette_Vaping_-_Vape_Cloud_(25587025826).jpg

Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2026. https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub11/full