Cognitive and Affective Mechanisms Underlying an Olfactory Approach to Modify Cigarette Craving

Launched by UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH · May 23, 2021

Keywords

ClinConnect Summary

This clinical trial is studying how pleasant smells can help reduce cravings for cigarettes. Researchers want to understand how these smells affect the brain and behavior of smokers. They will involve 278 adult participants who smoke, either daily or occasionally. Participants will be randomly assigned to either smell a pleasant odor or a neutral scent. The study includes three visits, where participants will have their breathing checked, undergo brain scans while performing tasks, and report their cravings in different situations.

To be eligible for the trial, participants must be between 18 and 49 years old, fluent in English, and have a good sense of smell. They should also be right-handed and not have any serious medical or mental health issues. During the study, participants will go through a series of assessments and will need to have access to a smartphone to track their cravings over a week. This research may help develop new ways to support people trying to quit smoking by understanding how certain scents can influence their cravings.

Gender

ALL

Eligibility criteria

• Inclusion Criteria:
• • Aged 18-49
• • Right-handed
• • Fluent in English
• • Intact sense of smell
• • Pass an MRI safety screening and along these lines will need to be 250lbs or less to safely enter the MRI
• • No drug dependence outside of nicotine or caffeine
• • Must fit into one of two categories of smokers, daily or nondaily, as confirmed by verbal self-report and a baseline CO reading; Daily smokers: must smoke 10-30 cigarettes per day for at least 12 months, Nondaily smokers: must smoke for 1-14 days of the last 30 days with no more than 20 cigarettes a day
• • Need to have access to a working smartphone to complete the ecological momentary assessment portion of the study
• Exclusion Criteria:
• • Medical conditions that contraindicate nicotine use
• • Not fluent in English
• • Illiterate
• • Current neurological or psychotic disorders
• • Current psychoactive drug use
• • MRI contraindications such as stroke history, pregnancy, metal in the body, history of aneurysms, or serious head injury
• • Individuals will also be excluded if they report any allergies to the odors used in our study.
• • Baseline CO readings will need to be consistent with our criteria for daily and nondaily smokers for participants to be considered eligible. Specifically, we plan to rule out extremely heavy smokers (nondeprived CO \> 55, for whom the smoking abstinence requirement may be too extreme to allow a sensitive test of our OC manipulation) and daily smokers with a nondeprived CO reading \<10 PPM as this would raise concerns that they do smoke enough to be classified as a daily smoker.