Combination Nicotine Patch / Lorcaserin for Smoking Cessation (LorNic)

This study plans to compare the efficacy of the nicotine patch / lorcaserin combination treatment vs. the nicotine patch alone in terms of leading to a reduction in smoking behavior and withdrawal symptoms.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Nicotine Dependence
• Intervention / Treatment: Drug: nicotine patch; Drug: lorcaserin; Drug: placebo lorcaserin

Detailed Description

This study proposes to investigate the potential efficacy of a combination of two FDA-approved agents, nicotine patch and lorcaserin, for smoking cessation treatment. The nicotine patch which provides a sustained low dose of nicotine is a nicotine receptor agonist. Lorcaserin, a serotonin 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 2C (5-HT2C) agonist, is a drug that is FDA-approved for weight loss, and has also recently been shown to be efficacious for smoking cessation. Given that these drugs act through distinct mechanisms it is hoped that the combination will prove more efficacious than either drug alone. It is also hypothesized that the combination will reduce weight gain commonly seen after smoking cessation.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 97
• Phase: Phase 2

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • North Carolina
    • Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27705
      • Duke Center for Smoking Cessation

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18-65 years old;
• Smoke an average of at least 10 cigarettes per day;
• Have smoked at least one cumulative year;
• Have an expired air CO reading of at least 10ppm;
• Body weight of >50 kg (110 lbs.)
• Able to read and understand English;
• Express a desire to quit smoking in the next thirty days.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Hypertension (systolic >140 mm Hg, diastolic >100 mm Hg, coupled with a history of hypertension); subjects with no previous diagnosis of hypertension may have a screening blood pressure up to 160/100.
• Hypotension with symptoms (systolic <90 mm Hg, diastolic <60 mm Hg).
• Participants with a history of hypertension may, however, be allowed to participate in the study if the study physician or physician assistant determines that the condition is stable, controlled by medication, and in no way jeopardizes the individual's safety.
• Coronary heart disease, diagnosed by coronary angiogram;
• Lifetime history of heart attack;
• Cardiac rhythm disorder (irregular heart rhythm);
• Chest pain in the last month (unless history, exam, and ECG clearly indicate a non-cardiac source);
• Symptomatic cardiac (heart) disorder (including but not limited to valvular heart disease, heart murmur, heart failure);
• Diagnosis of liver disease or kidney disorder (except kidney stones, gallstones);
• Gastrointestinal problems (e.g. Celiac disease, Crohn's dx Ulcerative Colitis) or disease other than gastroesophageal reflux or heartburn;
• Active ulcers in the past 30 days;
• Currently symptomatic lung disorder/disease (including but not limited to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and asthma);
• Brain abnormality (including but not limited to stroke, brain tumor, and seizure disorder);
• Migraine headaches that occur more frequently than once per week;
• Recent, unexplained fainting spells;
• Problems giving blood samples;
• Diabetes (unless controlled by diet and exercise alone and screening glucose is less than 180mg/dcl and HbA1c is less than 7%);
• Current cancer or treatment for cancer in the past six months (except basal or squamous cell skin cancer);
• HIV, Hepatitis B, or Hepatitis C
• History of tuberculosis or recent positive purified protein derivative (PPD) test
• Other major medical condition;
• Current psychiatric disease (with the exception of anxiety disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and ADHD);
• Suicidal ideating (thinking about ways to commit suicide) (within the past 10 years) or lifetime occurrence of attempted suicide;
• Current depression - The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for Depression will be used to screen for current (within 2 weeks) depression. Potential subjects who score >9 (or who score >0 on item #9 ("Thoughts that you would be better off dead, or of hurting yourself in some way") will be excluded from study participation, and, at the discretion of the study physician, referred to appropriate psychiatric treatment;
• Bulimia or anorexia;
• BMI of < 18.5 kg/m2;
• Prior use of fenfluramine or dexfenfluramine

• Use (within the past 30 days) of:

  • Illegal drugs (or if the urine drug screen is positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), Cocaine, Amphetamine, Opiates, Methamphetamines, phencyclidine (PCP), Benzodiazepines, or Barbiturates), Unless recent use of prescription Opiates, Benzodiazepines for management of acute symptoms.
  • Experimental (investigational) drugs;
  • Psychiatric medications including antidepressants (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), St. John's Wort), lithium, anti-psychotics or any other medications that are known to affect smoking cessation (e.g. clonidine);
  • Phentermine, triptans, tryptophan, linezolid, dextromethorphan, opiates, tramadol, or dopamine agonists;
  • Any agents that have documented correlation with increased incidence of valvulopathy and/or pulmonary hypertension (e.g., cyproheptadine, trazodone, nefazodone, amoxapine, tricyclic antidepressants, mirtazapine, pergolide, ergotamine, methysergide) (or anticipated use during the study);
  • Smokeless tobacco (chewing tobacco, snuff), pipes or e-cigarettes;
  • Wellbutrin, bupropion, Zyban, Chantix, varenicline, nicotine patch, nicotine replacement therapy or any other smoking cessation aid.
• Concurrent use of a serotonergic agent/combination associated with severe serotonin syndrome (within the past 30 days);
• Use of cigar, cigarillos, pipe, Hookah, dissolvable nicotine, snuff, chewing tobacco more than once per month.
• Use of e-cigarettes once per month or more.
• Self-report of consuming 4 or more alcoholic drinks on 1 or more days per week;
• Significant adverse reaction to lorcaserin or nicotine patch in the past.
• Current participation or recent participation (in the past 30 days) in another smoking study at the investigators Center or another research facility.
• Current participation in another research study.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Double

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Lorcaserin + Patch; Participants will receive lorcaserin (10mg twice a day) and nicotine patches (21mg/24hr) for 14 weeks, at which point the nicotine patch dosage will be reduced to 14mg/24hr for 1 week, followed by 7mg/24hr for 1 week.	Drug: nicotine patch; Other Names: Nicoderm; Drug: lorcaserin; Other Names: Belviq
Experimental: Patch; Participants will receive nicotine patches (21mg/24hr) and placebo lorcaserin for 2 weeks; after 2 weeks participants will begin to receive active lorcaserin (10mg twice a day) along with the nicotine patches for 12 weeks, at which point the nicotine patch dosage will be reduced to 14mg/24hr for 1 week, followed by 7mg/24hr for 1 week.	Drug: nicotine patch; Other Names: Nicoderm; Drug: lorcaserin; Other Names: Belviq; Drug: placebo lorcaserin; Other Names: placebo Belviq

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Time-to-lapse	Two weeks after treatment is initiated, with nicotine patch + lorcaserin or nicotine patch alone, but still two weeks prior to the quit day, subjects will be evaluated in a modified version of the McKee Smoking Lapse Task. In this task smokers, who have been abstinent for 2 hours will be provided with the option to smoke at any time, but paid by the minute for remaining abstinent with progressively decreasing payments over an hour.	Week 2 pre quit day
Smoking Withdrawal	At the study visit above (two week post treatment initiation but 2 weeks prior to quit day), withdrawal symptoms will be assessed after 2 hours of smoking abstinence using the Shiffman-Jarvik (short form) questionnaire, which consists of 9 items rated from 1 to 7, where 1= not at all, 2= very little, 3= a little, 4= moderately, 5= a lot, 6= quite a lot, and 7= extremely. The 9 items are grouped into 8 subscales: Craving, Negative Affect, Appetite, and Arousal. The range of scores for each subscale will be 1-7, with higher scores indicating more of the withdrawal symptom having been experienced.	Week 2 pre quit day

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Number of Participants Reporting Smoking Abstinence	Number of participants who reported continuous four-week abstinence from smoking (weeks 7-10 post target quit date), confirmed by expired air carbon monoxide (CO).	Weeks 7-10 post quit day
Number of Participants Reporting Tolerability Issues With Lorcaserin + Nicotine Patch Treatment	Tolerability of the lorcaserin + nicotine patch treatment will be assessed by tabulating the number of participants rating side effects > "moderate".	Two Weeks pre and 10 weeks post quit day
Weight Gain Following Continuous Four-week Abstinence From Smoking	Among smoking-abstinent participants, weight gain relative to baseline will be assessed.	Week 10 post quit day
Number of Participants Reporting 6-month Smoking Abstinence	Number of participants who reported not smoking for the previous seven days when called for 6-month follow-up, confirmed by expired air carbon monoxide (CO).	6 months post Quit Day
Percentage of Change in Ad Libitum Smoking at End of Week 2	To evaluate the effects of lorcaserin on ad libitum (ad lib) smoking, the percent change in reported number of cigarettes smoked from baseline to the end of week 2 (the day prior to the 2nd study visit) will be calculated.	Week 2 pre quit day
Adherence to Lorcaserin + Nicotine Patch Treatment as Indicator of Tolerability	Tolerability of the lorcaserin + nicotine patch treatment will be assessed by calculating adherence scores based on the percentage of days on which the study drugs were taken between visits as reported by participants on diaries.	Two Weeks pre and 10 weeks post quit day

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Duke University
• Collaborators: National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Hartmann-Boyce J, Theodoulou A, Farley A, Hajek P, Lycett D, Jones LL, Kudlek L, Heath L, Hajizadeh A, Schenkels M, Aveyard P. Interventions for preventing weight gain after smoking cessation. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2021 Oct 6;10(10):CD006219. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD006219.pub4.
• Rose JE, Davis JM. Combination Lorcaserin and Nicotine Patch for Smoking Cessation Without Weight Gain. Nicotine Tob Res. 2020 Aug 24;22(9):1627-1631. doi: 10.1093/ntr/ntz149.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 8, 2016
• Primary Completion (Actual): March 27, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): October 18, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 15, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 19, 2016
• First Posted (Estimate): September 20, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): May 7, 2019
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 6, 2019
• Last Verified: May 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Smoking cessation; Nicotine addiction; Cigarette smoking; Nicotine patches; lorcaserin; Belviq
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Chemically-Induced Disorders; Substance-Related Disorders; Tobacco Use Disorder; Physiological Effects of Drugs; Neurotransmitter Agents; Molecular Mechanisms of Pharmacological Action; Autonomic Agents; Peripheral Nervous System Agents; Cholinergic Agents; Ganglionic Stimulants; Nicotinic Agonists; Cholinergic Agonists; Nicotine
• Other Study ID Numbers: Pro00074741; P50DA027840-06 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No