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Study helps smokers quit, remain non-smokers by Dick Peterson Public Relations Robert Malcolm, M.D., likes to quote Mark Twain: “Quitting smoking is easy. I’ve done it hundreds of times.” Malcolm and his team of nicotine negators have gotten pretty good at getting their clients to quit.  What they’re working on now is getting them to stay quit. “Only 35 out of 100 remain non-smokers,” Malcolm said, lending credence to Mark Twain’s confession. Key to the effort is a new medication called Rimonabant, manufactured by the French pharmaceutical company, Sanofi-Synthelabo. Already shown effective in helping long-time smokers quit, the drug is under international study to prevent relapse. The study enlists subjects in six nations with 33 participating institutions in the U.S. alone.  Here at MUSC, Malcolm seeks 120 qualified participants willing to commit to a one-year regimen of medication and counseling and a second year of follow-up. The study to prevent relapse is actually the second of a three-phase trial showing the drug’s safety and effectiveness in getting smokers to quit, prevent relapse and finally achieve approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Rimonabant is known as a cannabinoid receptor antagonist. That’s right, cannabinoid as in cannabis, as in marijuana. But as a receptor antagonist, it works in effect somewhat opposite to the illegal weed, and blocks the effect of the quite legal, but unhealthy, tobacco as well. Apparently, Rimonabant binds to receptors in the brain that would otherwise bind to nicotine, but without nicotine’s addicting, health-threatening effects.  Malcolm said that in previous Rimonabant studies, the medication has been observed to improve memory, decrease appetite and aid in weight loss by reducing craving. This has led to further research proposals into the drug’s therapeutic qualities in Alzheimer’s disease, obesity, other addictions and schizophrenia. The study to measure Rimonabant’s effectiveness in reducing the relapse rates among tobacco quitters will include 28 visits in the first year, meeting every other week.  The first one or two sessions will be about two hours long and run approximately 15 to 20 each thereafter, Malcolm said. There will be minimal compensation for travel expense available. For  more information and to enroll in the study, call Kenna or Sarah at 792-2727.     Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.