A Randomized Controlled Trial of Inhibitory Control Training for Smoking Cessation and Reduction

• Published in: Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 2019-09, Vol.87 (9), p.831-843
• Main Authors: Bos, Jason, Staiger, Petra K, Hayden, Melissa J, Hughes, Laura K, Youssef, George, Lawrence, Natalia S
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Alcohol use; Cigarettes; Clinical research; Clinical trials; Cognitive Control; Cognitive Remediation - methods; Communications technology; Death and Dying; Female; Food consumption; Healthy food; Human; Humans; Impulsiveness; Impulsivity; Information technology; Inhibition, Psychological; Intervention; Male; Middle Aged; Randomized Controlled Trials; Response inhibition; Self-Control; Smoking; Smoking - therapy; Smoking Cessation; Smoking Cessation - methods; Telemedicine - methods; Tobacco; Tobacco Smoking; Training; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0022-006X; 1939-2117
• DOI: 10.1037/ccp0000424

Objective: The high rates of illness and mortality associated with cigarette smoking necessitate the development of novel reduction and cessation treatments. Inhibitory control training (ICT) has recently emerged as a potentially efficacious intervention to reduce the consumption of alcohol and unhealthy food. This randomized controlled trial was the first to investigate the effect of Internet-delivered ICT on cigarette consumption in a community sample of heavy smokers. Method: For the present study, 107 adult smokers (mean age = 46.15 years; 57 female) who smoked a minimum of 10 cigarettes per day and met criteria for a moderate or severe tobacco use disorder were recruited. Participants were randomly allocated to receive go/no-go training in which either smoking stimuli (intervention) or nonsmoking stimuli (control) were paired with no-go signals and were instructed to complete 1 training session per day over a 2-week period. This trial was preregistered with the Australian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (Trial ID: ACTRN12617000252314). Results: We found no significant differences between conditions on percentage of days abstinent or daily cigarette consumption, although there was a significant decrease in daily cigarette consumption across both conditions. Further, we found no significant moderating effects of impulsivity on the relationship between cigarette consumption and the 2 tasks. Conclusions: Although participants in both conditions reduced their daily cigarette consumption, the intervention task was no more successful than the control task was in achieving cigarette abstinence or reduction. What is the public health significance of this article? Findings from this randomized controlled trial suggest that smoking-specific inhibitory control training does not appear to help adult smokers cease or reduce cigarette smoking compared to an active control task.