PlainPill

Nicotine Lozenges vs Nicotine Patch for focus

Short answer: For focus, users rate them about the same: 90% report improvement with Nicotine Lozenges (10 reports) and 91% with Nicotine Patch (34 reports).

Nicotine Lozenges has 3 meta-analyses and 18 randomized trials on PubMed; Nicotine Patch has 58 and 490.

Based on 26 reports about Nicotine Lozenges and 56 about Nicotine Patch. Not medical advice.

Nicotine Lozenges
Substance
Nicotine Patch
Substance
Users say it helped33%helped15 reports · few reports66%helped33 reports · medium confidence
Verdict
Mixed
Mostly positive
ResearchAResearch: StrongAResearch: Strong
Meta-analyses / RCTs3 / 1858 / 490
Mainly used for
Focus
% reporting improvement
90% (10)91% (34)
Energy
% reporting improvement
75% (4)100% (10)
Memory
% reporting improvement
—100% (5)
Common side effectsaddiction, nausea, throat pain, teeth damagevivid dreams, nausea, insomnia, headache
Typical dose reported2-20 mg / daily21 mg patch (1/4 ≈ 5.25 mg suggested)
Nicotine Lozenges
Latest review conclusion

There is evidence that preoperative smoking interventions providing behavioural support and offering NRT increase short-term smoking cessation and may reduce postoperative morbidity. One trial of varenicline begun shortly before surgery has shown a benefit on long-term cessation but did not detect an effect on early abstinence or on postoperative complications. The optimal preoperative intervention intensity remains unknown. Based on indirect comparisons and evidence from two small trials, interventions that begin four to eight weeks before surgery, include weekly counselling and use NRT are m

Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2014 ↗
What a user said
“I'm hooked on nicotine lozenges... They help me both not smoke as well as feel mentally sharper.”
Full Nicotine Lozenges profile →
Nicotine Patch
Latest review conclusion

There is limited evidence that either behavioural support or smoking cessation medication increases the proportion of young people that stop smoking in the long-term. Findings are most promising for group-based behavioural interventions, but evidence remains limited for all intervention types. There continues to be a need for well-designed, adequately powered, randomized controlled trials of interventions for this population of smokers.

Cochrane Database Syst Rev, 2017 ↗
What a user said
“try a low dose nicotine patch . Will probably not keep you up, has the lowest addiction risk of all nicotine products, and speaking as a fellow ADHDer, helps with anhedonia for me.”
Full Nicotine Patch profile →

Related comparisons

Percentages come from first-hand user reports and are not clinical outcomes. Talk to a doctor before starting, stopping or combining anything. How we rate