Based on my experience the answer would be, Yes. Ten or twelve years ago I decided to quit smoking after you no longer needed a prescription to buy the patches.
The patches come in 21mg, 14mg, and 7mg versions. The idea is that you use the 21mg dose for 3 months, then drop to the 14mg, for 3 months and then step down to the 7mg for 3 months then just stop the patches all together.
As advised I began with the 21mg patch, replacing it every morning just after I got out of the shower. I'd been using them for about 2 weeks and wondered if they were actually doing anything. At the 2-week mark, I decided to test it and see if I could notice a difference. Rather than replacing the patch when I got out of the shower, I left the old one on and just kept the new one in my shirt pocket in case of an emergency. "I" wasn't particularly aware of it, but those working around me were....since I didn't remove the old one, it was still offering some efficacy as it lost potency. About 3pm, my business partner asked me if I was having a bad day. I told her about my patch test and she assured me....."they had been working", so put a new one on. I did, but being an engineer...everything has to be tested. Rather than putting the new patch on....I cut it in half and put that on, so now I had about 10.5mg to see how that worked.
It ended up working fine, so I began cutting them in half for two weeks....then I decided to see if I could cut them in half again, so I did. Now I was using about 5.5mg and was doing fine....after two weeks at that dosage...I just dropped them altogether.
It seemed for "me", that even the reduced dose relieved the edge you suffer from during the withdrawal process.
I know there are some smoking ceasation sites that are very ANTI any nicotine substitute, patches, gum and probably Chantix, basically belittling those using these substitutes. You won't get any of that from me....I have no problem with anything, anyone can use for a crutch to get away from cigarettes.
