Pennsylvania, Jan. 31 -- : Researchers from Penn State College of Medicine and the University of Minnesota conducted a study to see if drugs like dextromethorphan, which is used to treat cold and flu-related coughs, may be repurposed to help individuals give up smoking. In order to find the medications, they created a revolutionary machine-learning technique that uses computer programs to look for patterns and trends in data sets. They claimed that some of the drugs are already being evaluated in clinical trials.
Smoking causes close to 500,000 deaths annually in the United States and is a risk factor for respiratory illnesses, cancer, and cardiovascular disease. While smoking habits can be acquired and unlearned, heredity also affects a p...