University of Wisconsin researchers are testing a medication that could keep those trying to quit smoking from worrying about gaining weight, as world health leaders decry the tobacco epidemic spreading across the planet.

Dr. Doug Jorenby, director of clinical services for the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention and associate professor of medicine at the University of Wisconsin, is working on the investigative medication. The CTRI is a program of the UW Medical School. "This is a new class of investigative medication that's not nicotine based," Jorenby said. The drug bupropion, which is marketed as Zyban, is the only Food and Drug Administration-approved prescription smoking-cessation drug that does not work by nicotine replacement. "This research study will evaluate a new medication in terms of helping smokers maintain their abstinence over a longer period of time," said Dr. Michael Fiore, director of the CTRI. "We will also examine whether this medication reduces weight gain associated with quitting smoking." Some of the effects of nicotine include appetite suppression, which some say makes people who quit smoking regain their normal appetite and gain five to 15 pounds. Jorenby said hopefully the medication would provide incentive for people who continue to smoke to stay slim and provide an appealing alternative to drugs currently on the market. "About 75 percent of people who quit smoking gain wait," Jorenby said. "We certainly know there are people out there who have not quit smoking because when they had tried to quit for some time, they gained weight." Jorenby said an ideal participant in the study would be "someone who is a regular daily smoker and in reasonably good health, as much as that's a contradiction of terms." The study is a considerable time commitment, because it will last for two years, but smokers who volunteer can get smoking-cessation medication and counseling for free during that time. The CTRI said in a statement that every year 500,000 Wisconsin residents try to quit smoking, often by going cold turkey, and that only one-in-20 succeed. Annual deaths of 430,000 have been attributed to cigarette smoking, and 8,000 deaths yearly in Wisconsin appear to be smoking-related. Earlier in March, 169 countries met in Geneva to put their support behind the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, out of which has come the first international health treaty. The treaty outlines the ban of tobacco advertising and greatly increases cigarette taxes for participating countries. Germany and the United States did not join support of the treaty. The FCTC prefaced the treaty by saying it was "deeply concerned about the high level of smoking and other forms of tobacco consumption by indigenous peoples." Although the United States has some of the strictest nonsmoking laws in the world, it is also home to the largest tobacco companies in the world, which have saturated foreign markets with American-made cigarettes. The United States and Germany said they would restrict tobacco advertising but could not ban it because of the constitutional free-speech issues it would involve. "It's an eloquent testimony to the influence tobacco companies have in U.S. government," Jorenby said.

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