Cytisine

What is Cytisine?

Cytisine is a smoking cessation treatment that can help reduce your nicotine cravings. Smoking is addictive and quitting cold turkey can be challenging, but with support from treatments like Cytisine, your chances of stopping increase.

Cytisine is a drug derived from a tree commonly found in Europe called Golden Rain acacia. It binds to the same receptors as nicotine but doesn’t have the same addictive or harmful effect. This makes it an effective treatment to help stop smoking.¹

How does Cytisine work?

When you smoke a cigarette, nicotine (the drug found in tobacco) binds to part of your nervous system called the cholinergic nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (AChRs). This binding triggers the release of dopamine, which creates feelings of pleasure and reward.² The more you smoke, the more dependent you become on this dopamine release, making it harder to quit.

Cytisine has a similar shape to nicotine, allowing it to bind to the same nicotinic receptors. This helps create similar dopamine-releasing effects to nicotine, but at a much milder response (because Cytisine has different properties to nicotine). This helps reduce your cravings for pleasure and reward and, over time, eventually helps you quit.¹

How does Cytisine reduce my nicotine cravings?

Cytisine comes as a 1.5mg tablet that’s taken for 25 days. At the start, you’ll take one tablet every two hours. As the days progress, the dosage reduces until you reach one-to-two tablets on days on 21st to 25th day.

As the dosage is gradually reduced, your dopamine cravings will weaken until they eventually disappear.

How to take Cytisine

Cytisine comes in a pack of 100 tablets. The tablets should be taken at the correct time according to the treatment schedule. This way the treatment course will only last 25 days. Each tablet should be taken with a little water.

The treatment schedule is as follows:

• Days 1-3: 1 tablet taken every 2 hours. A maximum of 6 tablets should be taken a day.
• Days 4-12: 1 tablet taken every 2.5 hours. A maximum of 5 tablets should be taken a day.
• Days 13-6: 1 tablet taken every 3 hours. A maximum of 4 tablets should be taken a day.
• Days 17-20: 1 tablet taken every 5 hours. A maximum of 3 tablets should be taken a day.
• Days 21-25: 1-2 tablets per day.

By day five, you should stop smoking alongside your tablets. If you continue smoking after this day it can cause side effects, and might make it harder for you to quit.

How long does Cytisine take to work?

The treatment course is only 25 days, so by the time you finish the pack, you should have stopped smoking. However, if the treatment isn’t successful, you can start another round of treatment with Cytisine after two or three months.

Quitting smoking can be tough, but fighting the urge to light up when you feel a craving can result in long-term abstinence.

What should I do if I make a mistake when taking Cytisine?

If you miss a tablet, don’t take two tablets at the same time to make up for a missed one. Instead, skip the missed tablet and carry on with your dosing schedule.

If you accidently take too much, you might experience symptoms of overdose. These can include nausea, vomiting, increased heart rate, fluctuations in blood pressure, breathing problems, blurred vision, and convulsions. If you experience any of these symptoms, seek urgent medical attention.