Low-Cost Contingency Management for Smoking Cessation

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Tobacco Use Cessation

In brief

An innovative low-cost form of contingency management has been developed in which participants receive the chance to draw vouchers from a fish bowl depending on whether or not their abstinence from tobacco is confirmed by expired-air carbon monoxide. The vouchers can be redeemed for prizes of varying value. This form of contingency management has been shown to be effective in the treatment of a variety of substance use disorders, but has not been investigated in a clinical trial focusing on smoking cessation. Thus, the primary purpose of the proposed study will be to investigate the effects of a low-cost prize-based form of contingency management in the treatment of nicotine dependence. To accomplish this objective, we enrolled 103 current smokers into the study. The participants in Study Arm 1 received the contingency management intervention for 8 weeks, and the participants in Study Arm 2 had their smoking status assessed but did not receive the contingency management intervention. Both interventions received brief counseling and nicotine replacement therapy. The counseling was conducted in two 60-minute individual sessions scheduled one week apart with two follow-up phone calls at weeks 3, 4, and 6. The primary outcome for this study was biochemically-validated smoking status at 3 months (end of treatment), and at 6- and 12-month follow-up. Both continuous and point-prevalent abstinence rates were determined. Saliva cotinine levels were measured in all participants reporting abstinence at each assessment. This study had 80% power to detect a 10% absolute difference in smoking cessation rates between the two treatment conditions (i.e., a 28% quit rate in Study Arm 1 versus a 18% quit rate in Study Arm 2) with alpha set at 0.05. These estimates included an anticipated 15% loss to follow-up over the 12-month study period.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT01040260

Run by

University of California, San Francisco

People needed

103

Starts

2009-06-01

Expected to finish

2012-05-01

Last updated by the study team

2018-06-06

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Smoke at least 5 cigarettes per day
• Interested in quitting

You may not qualify if…

• Cognitive impairment or unstable psychotic disorder that would significantly interfere with the individual's ability to participate in the study.
• Self-reported problem with alcohol or other drugs during the past three months
• Current use of any smoking cessation medication
• Presence of any contraindications for nicotine patches, lozenges, or gum
• Pregnancy

Where it is running

• VA Medical Center — San Francisco, California, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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