The study, published in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine (Vol. 154, No. 1), involved 101 teens aged 13 to 17 who had six weeks of patch therapy and follow-up visits at 12 weeks and six months. Researchers found nicotine patch therapy did not appear to be helping in getting teens to quit. At the end of the patch therapy, only 11 of the 101 teens were abstaining from smoking, according to the study. Six months later, only five of them were still not smoking. "It was discouraging not to see high rates of quitting, but there were several positives," said lead study author Richard Hurt, MD, director of the Nicotine Dependence Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Researchers pointed out that a positive aspect of the study was the high level of interest among teens in participating in the study. In addition, the study was helpful in collecting data important to future research into methods of helping teens quit. The researchers collected biologic data, such as levels of carbon dioxide and cotinine (a by-product of nicotine) in the smokers? bodies. In addition, they asked teens about how other people could help them quit smoking. "When you ask teenagers about changes that would help them quit smoking, they say ?Have the people around me not buy, offer, or smoke cigarettes,?" Dr. Hurt said.

Seventy-five percent of teenagers who want to quit come from homes where one or more other members of the household (such as parents) smoke, according to Dr. Hurt. Only 30 percent of adults trying to quit live in homes with at least one other smoker.

Dr. Hurt believes research into this area is important because there has not been very much done, and there is little information on effective means for helping teenage smokers quit. He said the response is always "amazing" when teens are offered the opportunity to participate in a study that can help them to quit. "There is a mythology that teen smokers don?t want to stop. That is not true," he said.

Ron Todd, director of tobacco control for the American Cancer Society (ACS), supports efforts to help teen smokers quit but said it?s also important to reduce the number of teens who start smoking in the first place.

"We want to change the social environment so that it doesn?t encourage tobacco use. This includes smoke-free indoor air, price increases for cigarettes, and eliminating sales to young people," Todd said.

Teens who are trying to quit need more behavioral counseling, according to Dr. Hurt. And more research into how to help them quit should be done, he said. Two studies funded by the National Institutes of Health are underway; one involves an Internet support intervention; the other involves using the drug bupropion (Zyban).