Research

Hormonal

The fixed-dose extended-release combination of naltrexone and bupropion (NB-ER) is the most promising pharmacotherapy for facilitating smoking cessation while preventing post-cessation weight gain in individuals with obesity.

If you smoke and have obesity, your fear of gaining weight after quitting is valid and common. Standard cessation drugs often fail to stop this weight gain. Ask your doctor about NB-ER (naltrexone/bupropion extended-release), which targets the brain pathways for both addiction and hunger, offering the best chance to quit smoking without the associated weight gain.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Thus, among emerging treatments, NB-ER appears to be the most promising to help people quit smoking without gaining weight. Consistent with these findings, the Association for the Study of Obesity on the Island of Ireland recommends NB-ER as the first choice of treatment for patients with obesity who smoke.
Angela Golden et al. · Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare · 2025

Why this rating

Based on a narrative review citing RCTs and systematic reviews, but lacking large-scale long-term head-to-head trials in the text itself.

Source

Smoking, Obesity, and Post-Cessation Weight Gain: Neurobiological Intersection and Treatment Recommendations

Angela Golden et al. · Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare · 2025

DOI 10.2147/jmdh.s509971

narrative_reviewCited 3×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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