Dear friends;
I quit smoking two weeks ago. I am using the nicotine patches, and have a question. According to the package,
"each patch contains 52.5 mg of s(-)-nicotine with a nominal controlled release rate in vivo of 21.0 mg/ 24 hr.
Does this mean I could actually be using the same patch for two days, or does the amount of nicotine delivered sharply drop off after 24 hours.?
Just curious how these things work, and if I can’t get twice the use out of these rather expensive little buggers. (relatively).
Are the nice folk at the Habitrol Corp trying to get me to buy more
per week than I really need? Thanks in advance, all you science-dopers!
Just a suggestion, but why not call your local pharmacy? The pharmacists there will be happy to answer your question for you, I am sure.
The actual amount of nicotine delivered from a patch does vary over time and from person to person.
The medical dogma is that a patch should deliver roughly 1mg over 24 hours per cigarette smoked. Hence a pack a day smoker should start off with a 21mg patch and work down gradually to the 14 and 7 mg/d nicotine patches.
It might indeed be possible for you to wear the patches for 2 or 2.5 days, however during the second day the patch would probably deliver less than 21mg/hr due to sweat, grime and local pharmacokinetics. Should be theoretically possible – Fentanyl patches are designed to be worn for 3 days, and scopolamine patches are not changed daily.
Were I you, I would see what happens on the second day. If the cravings intensify, I’d probably use the patch more often.
Dr_P, MD