International study carried out in 38 centers in Europe and the United States, among them Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research (VHIR), has demonstrated the security and efficacy of a drug, varenicline, which is administered to increase smoking cessation in smokers with stably treated current or past depression without exacerbating depression. Dr. Eugeni Bruguera, principal investigator of the research line in Smoking of the Psychiatry, Mental Health and Addictions group at VHIR, provided to the study the results of the effects of this drug marketed by Pfizer as ‘Champix’. A total of 525 patients participated in the clinical trial, 14 of them from Vall d’Hebron. Participants were smokers without psychotic episodes, diagnosed with depression in the last 2 years and undergoing stably antidepressant treatment, half were treated with varenicline and the other half with placebo. The results of the study, published in "http://annals.org/article.aspx?articleid=1738494" Annals of Internal Medicine, determine that there were no clinically relevant differences between groups in behavior and no overall worsening of depression in either group. In an article by "http://www.vhir.org/global/pdf/noticies/bruguera%20dm.pdf" Diario Médico, Dr. Bruguera assures that “this research is especially encouraging, because the incidence of smoking among psychiatric patients is between 2 and 4 times more than among the rest of the people”.