Anyone using Nicotine patches for Long Covid?

My daughter, who is a psych nurse, says they routinely cut a patch of a transdermal med in half for a smaller dose. Especially if you use the second half the next day, she says it doesn't matter.

I started the 7 mg patch 2 weeks ago. I'd found the original German study that caused all the interest, with all the graphs and charts, and followed the steps exactly as they had done with their 5 subjects.

The second day, I felt a lot worse, then better on the 3rd and subsequent days, but no better than before I started the patch. Then I realized I'd been removing the patch at night, thereby cutting my dose by 1/3.

I started using the patch 24/7, figuring a short period of poor sleep was worth a try. I'd also learned that feeling worse at first was common during the study, but it didn't change the final results. I felt worse again on the second day, but it resolved more quickly. Within 3 days, I was feeling 75% better than I had in 9 months, when I'd had a concussion and Covid just a week apart.

Then I got my new Covid shot. I had a strong reaction to it and was extremely fatigued for 3 days, which messed up my record-keeping. I saw in the German study that the person who was slowest to report 100% improvement spent 26 days on the 24/7 patch. I decided to continue it for one more full week -- 21 days for me.

That week is slmost over. Every day now, I wake up feeling great. No fatigue or brain fog, despite poor sleep. I have energy for routine activities that I haven't had for 9 months. I can walk my dog nearly a mile every day. My memory, concentration, and ability to understand are good, until I start getting tired as bedtime approaches. At this point, I'd say I'm 80% better, and I'm happy with that.

BTW, all the patients in the original study were interviewed by phone 6 months later. They all reported no recurrence of symptoms.

Yes, hearing whether the effects are permanent after treatment is complete would be super helpful. For something else I took an antibiotic and it almost made all my long covid symptoms go away. I thought maybe I was cured. But when I stopped the antibiotic all the LC symptoms came rushing back. I have heard this is not uncommon ... so the real test of the patches is do they have lasting benefits. Thank you!

There are two types of nicotine patches.

"Reservoir patches
The medicine is held in a reservoir with a rate-limiting membrane to control release of the medicine.
Cutting these patches can cause the medicine to leak from the patch and is therefore not recommended.
Matrix patches

The medicine is embedded in an adhesive matrix with the release rate determined by the physical properties of the matrix.
The Matrix type patches can be sometimes cut. Seek advice that it is safe to cut the patch."
Most of the nicotine patches are reservoir so not cuttable.

You can't cut the patches. The patches allow for slow release of nicotine, when you cut them, the contents ' spill out' and get absorbed by skin. So you may be getting higher dose. Try low dose gum.

I bought 21mg nicotine patches and cut into 6 pieces per patch. I lost my sense of smell from Covid Dec 2020, I fully regained my sense of smell in less than a week with simply a little 3.5 mg patch a day. Almost 3 years with little to no sense of smell I’m shocked it has come back 100%!!

That is wonderful! Any other symptom improvements? And can you let us know if after you stop using the patch your improvements continue - that is are they permanent? Thank you

This was the podcast I listened to. Im sorry, I misspoke, my sense of smell started coming back in the first few days but didn’t completely come back until 2 weeks of using the 3.5mg cut up patches.
I still use the patches occasionally for prevention, (there seem to be great side effects from nicotine patches.) I highly recommend trying it!!! Good luck!

I have purchased a box of Nicotine patches and then talked to two of my doctors about using them. Both of them suggest that I don’t use them as I was once a smoker. I haven’t used them as of yet, but reading your posts and others that have used them makes me want to! I’m going on 1 year of no taste or smell and frankly, it’s just awful. I’m currently having acupuncture to try to regain it, but that’s not working yet after about a dozen visits. Thanks for your post.

Well, docs are thinking that you were addicted to nicotine and the habit of smoking. But you broke that habit and that addiction. I don't know how low a dose the patch delivers. But I would think if it's low, you wouldn't be in danger of getting readjusted. Especially since the studies have folks on very low dose, short time treatments. You would be stopping before you could become addicted. Maybe even do the patch, if it's low, remove after a couple of hours. When folks were using gum, they were utilizing low dose, chewing per instructions( you don't chew it constantly like gum, you chomp it then park it in mouth for awhile, then chomp again etc. With now drinking). Then they spit it out after 30 min. I can't see how you can get addicted to nicotine at that usage.