Richmond 1994.

Methods	Country: Australia Recruitment: community volunteers
Participants	315 smokers average cpd 29
Interventions	1. Nicotine patch (24 h, 22 mg/24 h, 10 weeks incl tapering) 2. Placebo patch Level of support: high (group therapy)
Outcomes	Sustained abstinence at 12 months (reported in Richmond 1997, which also reports 3‐year follow‐up, not used in MA) Validation: CO
Notes	3‐year abstinence 21/153 vs 8/152, OR 2.9 ‐ higher than at 12 months Study was funded by Marion Merrell Dow, and supported by the Drug and Alcohol Directorate, NSW Department of Health, and the Lifestyle Unit, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney
Risk of bias
Bias	Authors' judgement	Support for judgement
Random sequence generation (selection bias)	Low risk	Quote: "Treatment and control patches were arranged in random order by Marion Merrell Dow, Sydney, then issued sequentially to patients as they attended"; married couples were assigned to same condition
Allocation concealment (selection bias)	Low risk	See above
Blinding (performance bias and detection bias) All outcomes	Unclear risk	Described as double‐blind
Incomplete outcome data (attrition bias) All outcomes	Low risk	Losses to follow‐up included as failures. Dropout rates fully reported