Nicotine Nasal Spray
Nicotine nasal spray is used to help people stop smoking. Nicotine nasal spray should be used together with a smoking cessation program, which may include support groups, counseling, or specific behavior change techniques. Nicotine nasal spray is in a class of medications called smoking cessation aids. It works by providing nicotine to your body to decrease the withdrawal symptoms experienced when smoking is stopped and to reduce the urge to smoke.
🔔 How should this medicine be used?
Nicotine nasal spray comes as a liquid to spray into the nose. Follow the directions on your prescription label carefully, and ask your doctor or pharmacist to explain any part you do not understand. Use nicotine nasal spray exactly as directed. Do not use more or less of it or use it more often than prescribed by your doctor.
Follow your doctor’s instructions about how many doses of nicotine spray you should use each day. Your doctor will probably tell you to start out using one or two doses per hour. Each dose is two sprays, one in each nostril. You should not use more than five doses per hour or 40 doses per day (24 hours). After you have used nicotine nasal spray for 8 weeks and your body adjusts to not smoking, your doctor may decrease your dose gradually over the next 4 to 6 weeks until you are not using nicotine inhalation any more. Follow your doctor’s instructions for how to decrease your nicotine dose.
Nicotine nasal spray may be habit-forming. Do not use a larger dose, use it more often, or use it for a longer period of time than prescribed by your doctor.
To use the nasal spray, follow these directions:
- Wash your hands.
- Gently blow your nose to clear your nasal passages.
- Remove the cap of the nasal spray by pressing in the circles on the side of the bottle.
- To prime the pump before the first use, hold the bottle in front of a tissue or paper towel. Pump the spray bottle six to eight times until a fine spray appears. Throw away the tissue or towel.
- Tilt your head back slightly.
- Insert the tip of the bottle as far as you comfortably can into one nostril, pointing the tip toward the back of your nose.
- Breathe through your mouth.
- Pump the spray firmly and quickly one time. Do not sniff, swallow, or inhale while spraying.
- If your nose runs, gently sniff to keep the nasal spray in your nose. Wait 2 or 3 minutes before blowing your nose.
- Repeat steps 6 to 8 for the second nostril.
- Replace the cover on the spray bottle.
- Any time you have not used the nasal spray for 24 hours, prime the pump in a tissue one or two times. However, do not prime too much as it will decrease the amount of medication in the container.
If you have not stopped smoking at the end of 4 weeks, talk to your doctor. Your doctor can try to help you understand why you were not able to stop smoking and make plans to try again.
Ask your pharmacist or doctor for a copy of the manufacturer’s information for the patient.