Overweight smokers looking to quit can join UT study
01/06/02
MEMPHIS (AP) — Medical researchers are looking for several hundred overweight smokers who want to give up tobacco.
The volunteers will take part in a University of Tennessee study on an anti-obesity drug that may also help smokers give up cigarettes.
Researchers hope to recruit from the area 430 adult volunteers who smoke at least 10 cigarettes a day and are generally healthy despite being overweight.
The drug being studied, sibutramine, is marketed under the name Meridia and is approved for controlling obesity.
Study volunteers will have four sessions with a psychologist to help them set up an individual anti-smoking program.
Half of the subjects will get regular doses of Meridia, with the other half taking look-alike pills that contain no drugs. In a year, researchers will compare the two groups for weight gain and smoking.
Researchers predict that 30% of the Meridia group will have quit smoking, compared with 15% of the other group. They also expect members of the Meridia group on average to weigh 10 pounds less than members of the other group.
For more information, call (901) 448-8400 or 1-800-916-2606.