Hey, all, welcome back to the Real Life Pharmacology podcast. I'm your host, pharmacist, Eric Christensen,

and I thank you so much for listening and supporting the podcast. Definitely a reminder,

go check out Real Life Pharmacology.com. Go subscribe there. Get your free PDF on the top 200 drugs.

Good little study guide, whether you're just looking for a

refresher in clinical practice or whether you're going through pharmacology classes, preparing for

board exams, whatever the case may be there. Just a great little thing that I put together based upon

my experience in taking exams and working in clinical practice for several years.

So with that, let's get into the drug of the day, and that's going to be Verenaclean.

Brand name of this medication is Chantix.

I do see it used a fair amount, definitely, and the primary and pretty much the only use I see it used for is smoking cessation.

Now, how does this drug work? How does it help patients stop smoking?

So if you remember, nicotine receptors play an important role in the body, and they really give that reward,

that positive feedback from the action of smoking and ingesting nicotine from tobacco products.

So what Verenicline does is actually partially, it's considered a partial agonist, so it partially

stimulates those nicotine receptors.

So it gives you a little bit potentially of that reward sensation.

But what it also does when it stimulates those receptors, it helps block those receptors from the full nicotine

action that you get from smoking, for example. So again, this drug blocks the action of that

nicotine, which helps reduce the reward of smoking.

So if you remember that dopamine or dopamine in the central nervous system gives

that reward type feedback.

So Verena Clean helps kind of reduce that reward potential. In addition, there is possibility it can help reduce withdrawal

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