A smoking cessation study recently published in The Lancet that compared the effectiveness of e-cigarettes versus nicotine patches in smokers found that both methods of smoking cessation have equivalent results.  The study is the second controlled trial that evaluates e-cigarettes, but the first to evaluate the effectiveness of e-cigarettes against that of nicotine patches in helping smokers to quit.  In addition to publication in The Lancet, the findings of the study appeared in a presentation at the European Respiratory Society Annual Congress 2013 in Barcelona, Spain.

Associate Professor Chris Bullen, Director of the National Institute for Health Innovation at The University of Auckland, New Zealand, led a team of researchers in the study, which recruited 657 smokers through advertisements in local newspapers.