Nicotine dependence treatment Łódź

At Nasz Gabinet Łódź, we offer a nicotine dependence treatment programme. It includes a medical consultation, a review of your previous attempts to quit and medication chosen after a medical assessment. A therapist helps you change habits and prepare for situations in which the urge to smoke is hard to control. The programme includes the Nasz Gabinet app, which helps you take your medication and follow the plan agreed with your doctor. It supports you in following the recommendations between consultations too. Call to arrange the format and date of your appointment.

Rogozińskiego 23, 93-554 Łódź

Opening hours:Mon - Sun: 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM

Quitting smoking in Łódź, medication and a treatment plan in the Nasz Gabinet app

Smoking cessation — prices

3-month anti-nicotine treatment plan

The price includes:

  • A medical interview in the chat
  • An e-prescription for the medicine after the interview
  • Reminders for every tablet
  • Review of your videos by the medical team
  • A call from the clinic if you interrupt treatment
  • A smoke-free day counter
  • Stages after quitting smoking
  • Conversations with the AI assistant
  • A mood diary
QUITTING SMOKING IN ŁÓDŹ

Quitting smoking with the help of Nasz Gabinet Łódź

Why does a smoker need a similar dose of nicotine every day?

Nicotine is addictive because it acts on nicotinic receptors in the brain and increases the release of dopamine, which is linked to feelings of pleasure. With regular smoking, nicotine builds up in the body over 6 to 9 hours during the day. As a result, the brain is exposed to it around the clock. Some receptors then stop responding to nicotine, and their number grows. This is how tolerance and nicotine dependence, also called nicotine addiction, develop. The World Health Organization classifies it as a disease and describes it in ICD-10 under code F17.2 and in ICD-11 under code 6C4A.2.

Smokers take in a similar amount of nicotine every day. When a cigarette contains less nicotine, for example after switching to cigarettes with a lower nicotine content, they change the way they smoke to keep the nicotine level in the body about the same. That is why lighter cigarettes do not always mean less nicotine.

Many people who smoke up to 5 cigarettes a day mainly smoke in particular situations, such as after meals or with alcohol, and have few or no withdrawal symptoms. Even so, they often find it hard to stop. We therefore discuss quitting abruptly or gradually with every patient, regardless of how much they smoke.

Does quitting smoking reduce the risk of complications after surgery and procedures?

Yes. The longer the break from smoking before surgery, the less often complications occurred in studies. In a 2025 analysis of 55 studies, people who stopped smoking at least 4 weeks before surgery had 31 percent fewer complications overall, 29 percent fewer lung complications and 33 percent fewer wound healing complications than people who smoked right up to the operation. After at least 8 weeks without cigarettes, there were 37 percent fewer lung complications.

How a person quits also matters. In a summary of study results, the number of complications went down when support to quit started 4 to 8 weeks before surgery and included weekly sessions and nicotine replacement therapy. Brief advice before the procedure did not change the number of complications. This result, however, comes from 2 small studies.

How do we plan quitting smoking before surgery?

If the date of the operation allows, we set the quit date so that the patient has at least 4 weeks without cigarettes behind them before the procedure, and we suggest weekly sessions with an addiction therapist. When there is less time left before the operation, quitting still makes sense, because in the 2025 analysis there were already 27 percent fewer lung complications after 2 weeks without cigarettes. Before the operation, the patient tells the anaesthetist about any stop-smoking medicines, including a nicotine patch.

Does smoking slow healing after a tooth extraction?

Dry socket is a painful complication after a tooth extraction in which the blood clot falls out of the wound or breaks down. In a review of studies, smokers were more than three times as likely as non-smokers to have this complication, which occurred in about 13.2 percent of smokers and 3.8 percent of non-smokers. A patient who has a tooth extraction planned tells the dentist that they smoke.

Why start nicotine dependence treatment in Łódź?

After quitting smoking, the risk of cancer goes down. Smoking increases, for example, the risk of mouth and throat cancer. In a meta-analysis of 115 studies, this risk was more than three and a half times higher in smokers than in people who had never smoked. The risk doubled with as few as 6 cigarettes a day or after 7 years of smoking, and after quitting it fell, halving within 10 years.

Patients in Łódź do not have to quit alone. The doctor assesses dependence and chooses medication. In the treatment plan, the addiction therapist helps patients change habits and avoid returning to smoking, while the app provides reminders for every dose. If cravings are stronger than expected, patients can arrange an earlier medical appointment at ul. Rogozińskiego 23 or by video, and, with the treatment plan, an earlier therapy session in the app. No referral is needed.

Should you quit smoking overnight or cut down on cigarettes first?

Studies do not give a clear answer as to whether quitting overnight or gradually cutting down is more effective. Researchers from Cochrane, an international organisation that brings together the results of studies on a given topic, analysed 22 studies involving 9,219 smokers. There was no clear difference in the proportion of people who stopped smoking between the group that cut down before their quit day and the group that quit all at once. In a UK study of 697 smokers, one group cut the number of cigarettes by three quarters over the 2 weeks before their quit day, while the other quit overnight. After six months, 15.5 percent of people in the first group and 22 percent in the second were not smoking. That is why we suggest quitting overnight to patients who are ready to set a date for their last cigarette.

A course of cytisine gives the patient a few days to give up cigarettes. The patient starts taking the tablets while still smoking and smokes the last cigarette by day 5 at the latest, when they are already taking a tablet every 2.5 hours.

How can gum or a patch help you cut down?

Anyone who does not want to or cannot quit all at once can first cut down with the help of nicotine replacement therapy. The manufacturer of Nicorette Classic Gum allows it to be chewed between cigarettes when the urge to smoke comes, to make the gaps longer and smoke less. It also recommends trying to quit no later than 6 months after starting the gum. According to the manufacturer's recommendations, the NiQuitin Przezroczysty 21 mg patch can be applied every day for 2 to 4 weeks while the patient is still smoking, and treatment then continues without cigarettes. In the same review, cutting down with the help of a medicine led to quitting more often than cutting down without one, but the authors rate the certainty of this result as low.

How does nicotine dependence treatment in Łódź begin?

Treatment begins with a medical consultation at Nasz Gabinet in Łódź, ul. Rogozińskiego 23 in Górna, or by video in the app. Patients choose one of two options and purchase it in the app. The Anti-Nicotine Course costs PLN 350 and includes a consultation followed by an e-prescription for the selected medicine. The Anti-Nicotine Treatment Plan costs PLN 2499 and combines a consultation and prescriptions for 3 months of medication with 10 addiction therapy sessions. No referral is needed. Patients do not have to stop smoking before the appointment, as the date of the last cigarette is set only after the doctor decides whether medication is needed and which medicine to use.

We assess how strong the dependence is from the number of cigarettes the patient smokes a day and how many minutes after waking up they light the first one. We also ask about e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches, about the medicines used in previous attempts to quit, and about any surgery planned in the coming months, because its date affects when we set the quit date.

Before choosing a medicine, the doctor checks for heart disease and reviews all current medication; for women, they also ask about pregnancy and breastfeeding. This determines whether cytisine can be used or whether nicotine replacement therapy is more appropriate. Patients choosing the treatment plan begin addiction therapy sessions alongside their medication.

What do stop-smoking medicines contain and how do they work?

Stop-smoking medicines contain one of four substances: cytisine, nicotine, varenicline or bupropion. For each of them, we give the result of a Cochrane analysis of 319 studies: the percentage of people who were not smoking after six months or longer, in groups using the medicine and in groups not using it.

Cytisine (Desmoxan, Tabex and Recigar)

Cytisine tablets and capsules contain 1.5 mg of the substance, whose current international name is cytisinicline. Cytisine stimulates nicotinic receptors in the brain more weakly than nicotine and takes nicotine's place in them, so withdrawal symptoms are milder and a cigarette smoked during treatment gives less pleasure. After six months, 13 percent of people treated with cytisine were not smoking, compared with 6 percent without medication.

Most cytisine products are sold without a prescription, and the whole course costs about PLN 40 to 78. For the first 3 days, the patient takes 6 tablets a day, and from day 21 to day 25 only 1 or 2. Cytisine is not used during pregnancy or breastfeeding or after a recent heart attack or stroke, and it is not recommended for people under 18 or over 65, because it has been poorly studied in these age groups.

Nicotine patches (NiQuitin and Nicorette Invisipatch)

A patch releases nicotine evenly through the skin throughout the day, in a smaller amount than a smoker gets from cigarettes, and in this way eases cravings. The NiQuitin patch comes in strengths of 21, 14 or 7 mg and is worn for 24 hours. Nicorette Invisipatch comes in strengths of 25, 15 or 10 mg and is worn for 16 hours. After six months, 8 percent of people using a patch were not smoking, compared with 6 percent without medication.

Patches are sold without a prescription. A full course of 24-hour patches lasts 10 weeks and costs about PLN 606 to 930, and the manufacturer advises against making it longer.

Nicotine gum, spray and lozenges

Nicorette Classic Gum contains 2 or 4 mg of nicotine per piece, Nicorette Spray 1 mg per spray, and NiQuitin MINI 1.5, 2 or 4 mg per lozenge. From these forms, nicotine is absorbed through the lining of the mouth faster than from a patch, so patients use them when a sudden urge to smoke comes, and a doctor may recommend combining them with a patch for a strongly dependent person. They are sold without a prescription. After six months, 9 percent of people using these products were not smoking.

Varenicline (Champix)

Champix is a prescription medicine containing varenicline at 0.5 or 1 mg per tablet. Like cytisine, varenicline partly stimulates nicotinic receptors and prevents nicotine from cigarettes from stimulating them fully. After six months, 14 percent of people treated with varenicline were not smoking, but in September 2026 we did not find it in the pharmacies we checked.

Bupropion (Zyban)

Zyban contained 150 mg of bupropion hydrochloride in a prolonged-release tablet and was available on prescription until its marketing authorisation expired in December 2023. Bupropion blocks the reuptake of noradrenaline and dopamine in the brain, which means nerve cells take these substances back up more slowly. According to the manufacturer, however, it is not known how the medicine makes quitting easier. After six months, 9 percent of people treated with bupropion were not smoking.

What does therapy for nicotine dependence involve?

In the treatment plan at Nasz Gabinet in Łódź, the doctor and addiction therapist handle different aspects of care. The doctor assesses withdrawal symptom severity, chooses nicotine replacement therapy or cytisine, and provides support particularly while the patient stops smoking. Follow-up dates are agreed individually. Patients meet the therapist by video in the Nasz Gabinet app; the plan includes 10 sessions. The Anti-Nicotine Course for PLN 350 includes a medical consultation with an e-prescription but no therapy sessions. Patients buy medication separately at a pharmacy. In studies, therapy alongside medication increased the proportion of people who quit, with participants usually attending 4–8 sessions.

The first sessions help patients understand their smoking: when and in which situations they reach for a cigarette, and what it gives them. The therapist also helps identify personal reasons for quitting, using approaches such as motivational interviewing to help patients explore their doubts and reasons for change. Next, they prepare for the quit date, after which they stop smoking. The date must follow the medication schedule. With cytisine, smoking must stop by day 5 at the latest. Patients and therapists decide what to do when cravings occur.

In later sessions, patients change their daily schedule so cigarettes are no longer a regular feature, find ways to manage stress and difficult emotions, and discuss lifestyle changes as well as concerns about weight gain. Later work helps them maintain new habits, adjust to being a non-smoker and prevent a return to smoking. Patients also agree with the therapist what to do if they smoke a cigarette after their quit date.

How does the Nasz Gabinet app remind you to take your medicine?

The Nasz Gabinet app provides medication reminders at the prescribed times. During a 25-day cytisine course, the daily number of tablets falls from 6 to 1 or 2. The app reminds patients about each tablet and shows when the next one is due. It also counts smoke-free days from the quit date.

The app does not change medication or doses itself. Patients who feel unwell or have symptoms they associate with medication tell the doctor at an appointment booked in the app. This can take place by video, without travelling to ul. Rogozińskiego. Patients purchase a course or treatment plan in the app; either option gives access to the stop-smoking programme. Contact Nasz Gabinet in Łódź for telephone help with installation and purchasing.

Which stop-smoking methods do we not use?

  • We do not suggest heated tobacco as a way to quit smoking. A heated tobacco product still contains tobacco and delivers nicotine, and the WHO does not recognise it as a method that helps people stop using tobacco.
  • We do not treat with acupuncture, laser therapy or electrostimulation. In an analysis of 38 studies, no reliable evidence was found for any of these methods that it helps people stay off cigarettes for six months or longer.

What symptoms appear after the last cigarette and how long do they last?

After the last cigarette, cravings set in, along with irritability, anxiety, difficulty concentrating, trouble sleeping and, in some people, low mood. These symptoms are strongest in the first week and usually pass after 2 to 4 weeks. The urge to smoke in situations associated with smoking, for example with coffee or alcohol, can still come back later, though.

A stop-smoking medicine eases withdrawal symptoms, and an addiction therapist helps plan what the patient will do when the urge to smoke is strongest. In people who have had depression, quitting smoking can make it worse. The patient tells the doctor about any marked worsening of mood and seeks medical help immediately if they have suicidal thoughts.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Questions about nicotine dependence treatment in Łódź

No. Patients from Zgierz can receive all their treatment through the Nasz Gabinet app, with video consultations with a doctor and, if they choose the treatment plan, an addiction therapist. Prices are the same for video consultations and appointments at the Górna clinic: PLN 350 for the course and PLN 2499 for the plan. Nicotine patches and most cytisine preparations are available without a prescription, so patients can buy the recommended medicine at a pharmacy near home.
The Anti-Nicotine Course, a medical consultation with an e-prescription, costs PLN 350. The Anti-Nicotine Treatment Plan costs PLN 2499 and includes the consultation, prescriptions for 3 months of medication and 10 addiction therapy sessions. Patients pay for medicines separately at a pharmacy, as the NFZ does not reimburse stop-smoking medication. A cytisine course costs about PLN 40–78, while a 10-week course of 24-hour patches costs about PLN 606–930.
Only during the first few days. According to the cytisine manufacturer, smoking must stop by day 5 at the latest, and smoking during treatment may increase nicotine-related side effects. Patients who smoke after their quit date should tell the doctor without waiting for a scheduled therapy session, because the doctor decides whether cytisine should be continued.
Yes. We can start by cutting down the number of cigarettes with the help of nicotine gum or patches and set a later quit date together with the patient. In studies comparing the two approaches, there was no clear difference in the proportion of people who quit between the group that first cut down and the group that quit all at once.
It depends on the patch. A 16-hour patch, such as Nicorette Invisipatch, is worn during the day and removed before bed. NiQuitin is a 24-hour patch that, according to its Summary of Product Characteristics, can be removed before bed, but wearing it around the clock reduces the urge to smoke in the morning.
Yes. The Summary of Product Characteristics for cytisine states that the medicine does not affect the ability to drive. However, dizziness and drowsiness are very common side effects, so a patient who experiences them does not drive until they pass and tells the doctor about them.
Cytisine is not used during pregnancy. Treatment is based on sessions with an addiction therapist, and the doctor decides on nicotine replacement therapy, such as patches or gum, if quitting without medication does not work.
No. The app sends reminders about doses and records when the patient felt like smoking, and the therapist discusses this with the patient in a session. The app does not choose the medicine or dose; the doctor sets them at the appointment.
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Nasz Gabinet Łódź

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Rogozińskiego 23
93-554 Łódź
Opening hoursMon - Sun: 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM
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Nicotine dependence treatment in Łódź

Book your first appointment

A 3-month treatment plan for PLN 499: a medical interview in the chat, an e-prescription for the medicine and reminders for every tablet in the app. Consultations with a psychologist are paid separately.

Rogozińskiego 23, 93-554 Łódź