• Sinem Iliaz, Seda Tural Onur, Mehmet Atilla Uysal, Efsun Gonca Uğur Chousein, Elif Tanriverdi, Belma Akbaba Bagci, Ayse Bahadir, Didem Gorgun Hattatoglu, Mediha Gonenc Ortakoylu, and Sibel Yurt.
• a Department of Pulmonary Medicine , Koç University Hospital , Istanbul , Turkey.
• Subst Use Misuse. 2017 Jul 3; 52 (8): 969-973.

BackgroundCigarette smoking is one of the most common addictions worldwide. Muslim smokers reduce the number of cigarettes they smoke during Ramadan due to the long fasting hours.ObjectivesWe aimed to share our experience in a smoking cessation clinic during Ramadan by analyzing the efficacy and adverse effects of once-daily dosing of bupropion or varenicline in a fasting group compared with conventional dosing in a non-fasting group.MethodsWe analyzed 57 patients who attended our smoking cessation clinic during Ramadan of 2014 and 2015, and at least one follow-up visit. For the fasting patients, we prescribed bupropion or varenicline after dinner (once daily) as the maintenance therapy. We recorded demographic characteristics of the patients, fasting state, drugs taken for smoking cessation, and the dosage of the medication. At the first follow-up visit, adverse effects seen with the treatment were recorded. We conducted telephone interviews 6 months after the first visits of the patients to learn the current smoking status of the groups.ResultsOf the total 57 patients, 20 (35.1%) were fasting and 37 (64.9%) were not fasting. Fasting and non-fasting patients were similar for sex, age, smoking pack-years, marital status, educational status, and mean Fagerström scores (p >.05). Adverse effects and quit rates after 6 months of follow-up were similar between the fasting and non-fasting groups (p >.05).ConclusionAlthough our sample size was small, we found no difference in the rates of adverse effects or smoking cessation using a single daily oral dose of bupropion or varenicline between a fasting group and a non-fasting group that received conventional dosing.

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