Investigation of Cigarette Cravings in Smokers

Marco Leyton

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Addiction Nicotine; Cigarette Smoking; Tobacco Use

Treatments: Behavioral: Cue induction; Behavioral: Control stress exposure; Behavioral: Neutral cue exposure; Behavioral: Stress induction

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04843969

421-0318

Details and patient eligibility

About

Interventions to disrupt memory reconsolidation have held promise for the treatment of stress- and anxiety-related disorders. In the present study, the investigators will examine whether an intervention based on these principles, called memory updating, could be adapted for reward-seeking behaviors. To test this, non-treatment seeking tobacco smokers will be exposed to smoking cues and/or stress, two stimuli known to trigger smoking. It is predicted that exposure to a stress task will enhance the cues' motivational salience and yield greater susceptibility to the memory updating procedure.

As an add-on, the investigators will examine COVID-associated changes in substance use and whether participants in the memory updating groups might be more resilient to these effects. It is predicted that the changes in substance use will depend on whether the substances are used primarily in social settings.

Full description

Non-treatment seeking cigarette dependent smokers will be randomized to one of four testing conditions: 1) a non-stressful task followed by neutral cues, 2) the non-stressful task followed by smoking cues, 3) a stressful task followed by neutral cues, or 4) the stressful task followed by smoking cues. Ten minutes after the intervention, participants will undergo a 60-minute extinction procedure consisting of smoking-related videos, images and smoking paraphernalia. Cue reactivity test sessions will take place 24 hours, 2 weeks and 6 weeks following the intervention.

COVID-associated changes in substance use will be quantified over three telephone interviews: one at the end of March / beginning of April 2020 (at the start of the pandemic), one at the end of April / beginning of May, and a final one which will be instituted if feasible once the infection rates and social distancing policies have decreased.

Enrollment: 76 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Scoring 5 or higher on the Fagerström Test for Cigarette Dependence
• Willingness to abstain from smoking for 4 hours prior to each laboratory visit

Exclusion criteria

• Currently using cigarette cessation products
• Endocrinological problems
• Significant mental or physical health conditions
• Pregnancy

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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76 participants in 4 patient groups

Stress task and smoking cue

Experimental group

Description:

Exposure to a psychosocial stress task followed by smoking video cues

Treatment:

Behavioral: Stress induction

Behavioral: Cue induction

Stress task and neutral cue

Experimental group

Description:

Exposure to a psychosocial stress task followed by neutral video cues

Treatment:

Behavioral: Neutral cue exposure

Behavioral: Stress induction

Control task and smoking cue

Active Comparator group

Description:

Exposure to a control task followed by smoking video cues

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cue induction

Behavioral: Control stress exposure

Control task and neutral cue

Active Comparator group

Description:

Exposure to a control task followed by neutral video cues

Treatment:

Behavioral: Neutral cue exposure

Behavioral: Control stress exposure