Efficacy of Varenicline on Smoking Cessation at the Acute Phase of an Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the bronchi with an increasing prevalence. By 2020, the mortality related to COPD is expected to become the 3rd leading death worldwide. COPD is caused by smoking in approximately 90 % of the cases. Nevertheless, COPD remains under-diagnosed and more than half of patients remain active smokers. Brittany is the second region of France facing an abnormal high death rate related to COPD. Smoking cessation is the most effective therapeutic approach to reduce the evolution of the disease, the frequency of the exacerbations and the the mortality. Besides, smoking cessation is associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular events and cancer. Given the COPD patients' strong addiction, smoking cessation is not easily obtained in such population. Furthermore, smoking cessation has been underestimated in several studies. Most of these studies evaluated various methods of smoking cessation in COPD patients performed after an exacerbation, which has a hospitalization related mortality of approximately 10%. Thus, there is an urgent need to find effective pharmacotherapies to help COPD patients to cease smoking. Varenicline, a partial agonist at a4ß2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors is reported to be one of the most effective pharmacotherapies for smoking cessation. However, it has never been evaluated at the acute phase of an exacerbation of COPD requiring hospitalization.