Transdermal Nicotine for Active Ulcerative Colitis

Most patients with ulcerative colitis are nonsmokers, and patients with a history of smoking usually acquire their disease within a few years after they have stopped smoking 1 – 4 . Among patients who continue to smoke, symptoms may improve, suggesting that smoking may have a beneficial effect 5 , 6 . Given the possibility that nicotine is the ingredient of tobacco smoke responsible for improvement, we treated 16 patients with active ulcerative colitis in an uncontrolled fashion with transdermal nicotine patches, and symptoms improved in 12 7 . We report here the results of a randomized, double-blind, controlled trial of transdermal nicotine in patients . . .