MODEL RELEASED: Giving up smoking. A woman wearing a nicotine patch on her arm looks disdainfully (or longingly?) at a packet of cigarettes. Nicotine patches are used by people trying to give up smoking. The patch contains nicotine which is released into the body over a period of 16 hours. The patches come in successively smaller doses; starting at 15mg per day and dropping to 5mg per day. The use of the patches is intended to reduce withdrawal symptoms and allow the smoker to give up for good.