Novrav

What is Nocrav?

Nocrav is a prescription medication that helps manage cravings and other withdrawal symptoms when you stop smoking. It’s a tablet you take every day, for a full course of treatment that your doctor prescribes after a medical assessment.

Before you start taking it, you will have to decide on a date where you stop smoking. This is usually between day 8 and 14 of treatment.

How does Nocrav work?

Nocrav works by blocking the receptors in the brain that are affected by nicotine. This means nicotine no longer produces the ‘feel good’ hormone response of dopamine.

With nicotine being blocked, the short term pleasurable effects from smoking which cause cravings are prevented. This makes it easier to avoid smoking until the cravings pass and you can consider yourself a non-smoker.

And if you do smoke while taking Nocrav, it doesn’t produce the same feeling in the brain, so it helps to make smoking less appealing.

How effective is Nocrav?

Clinical studies have shown that Nocrav is effective at helping people quit. People taking it were almost three times more likely to have abstained from smoking after a year of starting it, compared with a placebo. It’s also been found to be more effective than nicotine patches at promoting abstinence during treatment, and at one year following treatment.

Nocrav can be particularly helpful if you've tried other ways of quitting smoking before but these have been unsuccessful. By managing the cravings and reducing the withdrawal symptoms — the things that most people find difficult when quitting smoking — it increases your chances of success. You’ll still need some degree of willpower, but it can give you that extra bit of breathing space to get through the most difficult moments.

Some research also suggests that combining counseling with stop smoking treatments can help to further increase your chances of successfully quitting.