NRT

Primary care prescribing data for smoking cessation aids

Prescribing for smoking cessation aids has fallen in recent years, with a 17.5% reduction in prescription items between 2018 and 2017 in England and Wales. In 2018, £26 million was spent on treatments to aid smoking cessation in England and Wales, such as nicotine replacement therapies (NRTs), varenicline tablets and buproprion tablets.

Over half of prescription items in 2018 were for NRTs with patches being the most commonly prescribed NRT preparation. The RxIndex to the right provides details of the top prescribed NRT patch brands.