Systematic review on the efficacy and safety of cytisine against nicotine dependence

Introduction: tobacco is one of the main causes of preventable mortality in our environment, in addition to having been correlated with numerous diseases. Smoking cessation improves health status and life expectancy. Pharmacological treatment of smoking cessation increases the likelihood that patient will successfully quit smoking.

Method and design: a search was carried out in the PubMed and UpToDate databases, obtaining a total of 11 systematic reviews or meta-analyses published in the last five years. After applying inclusion criteria and reading summaries, 5 total articles were obtained for the final review.

Results and discussion: Cytisine is a safe and effective treatment for smoking cessation. The most effective treatment in the clinical trials reviewed is varenicline associated with nicotine replacement therapy.

There is less evidence collected on cytisine treatment, but it shows that it is also an effective therapy in smoking cessation, also demonstrating its usefulness in the long term. In addition, therapy with cytisine seems to entail fewer adverse effects than treatment with varenicline.