Ryan Courtney, Let’s talk e-cigarettes, September 2025

Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Nicola Lindson discuss emerging evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Ryan Courtney from the University of New South Wales, Australia. Associate Professor Jamie Hartmann-Boyce and Associate Professor Nicola Lindson discuss the new evidence in e-cigarette research and interview Associate Professor Ryan Courtney from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
In the September podcast Ryan Courtney talks about his recent randomised controlled trial looking at vaporised nicotine products (VNP, e-cigarettes) compared to nicotine replacement therapy (gum/ lozenges) for smoking cessation among people experiencing social disadvantage. This study was funded by Australian National Health and Medical Research Council and included 1045 people at the start of the study with 866 people completing follow up. The verified 6-month continuous abstinence rate was 28.4% (148 of 522) in the e-cigarette group and 9.6% (50 of 523) in the NRT group. Their findings indicate that e-cigarettes are more effective than NRT for smoking cessation in this population. Given the challenges for cessation among these socially disadvantaged populations, the authors of the study consider that e-cigarettes present a promising treatment option for this priority group.
This podcast is a companion to the electronic cigarettes Cochrane living systematic review and Interventions for quitting vaping review and shares the evidence from the monthly searches.
Our searches for the EC for smoking cessation review carried out on 1st August and 1st September 2025 found four new studies (10.7326/ANNALS-24-03531 by Courtney et al discussed in this podcast; 10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00101-X; 10.1186/s12916-025-04167-y; 10.1016/j.ypmed.2025.108389). The searches found six papers linked studies included in the review (10.57187/s.4571; 10.1186/s13063-025-08954-z; 10.1111/add.70115; 10.1016/j.ypmed.2025.108353; 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2025.112821; 10.3310/JHFR0841).
Our search for our interventions for quitting vaping review carried out 1st August and 1st September 2025 found two new ongoing studies (NCT07040566; ISRCTN11383698), and one linked paper (10.1016/S2468-2667(25)00145-8).
For further details see our webpage under 'Monthly search findings':
https://www.cebm.ox.ac.uk/research/electronic-cigarettes-for-smoking-cessation-cochrane-living-systematic-review-1
For more information on the full Cochrane review of E-cigarettes for smoking cessation updated in January 2025 see: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub9/full
For more information on the full Cochrane review of Interventions for quitting vaping published in January 2025 see: https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD016058.pub2/full
This podcast is supported by Cancer Research UK.