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The combined use of cigarettes and alcohol is associated with a synergistic increase in the risk of morbidity and mortality. Continued alcohol use during a smoking quit attempt is a considerable risk factor for smoking relapse. As such, there is a need for interventions that address both behaviors concurrently. Mindfulness-based interventions hold much promise for simultaneously addressing tobacco and alcohol use. This pilot study evaluated the feasibility and acceptability of a mindfulness-based intervention using a two-arm randomized controlled trial of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Smoking and Alcohol (MBRP-SA) vs Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Interventions were delivered via telehealth in a group setting; all participants received a 6-week supply of the nicotine patch. Participants (N = 69) were adults who smoked cigarettes who reported binge drinking and were motivated to both quit smoking and change their alcohol use. Primary outcomes were feasibility and acceptability of MBRP-SA compared to CBT. Changes in tobacco and alcohol use are also presented. Participants in MBRP-SA and CBT indicated that the treatments were highly acceptable, meeting a priori benchmarks. Feasibility was mixed with some outcomes meeting benchmarks (e.g., recruitment) and others falling below (e.g., retention). Participants in both conditions demonstrated significant reductions in tobacco and alcohol use at the end of treatment. In sum, MBRP-SA had comparable outcomes to CBT on all metrics measured. Future research should evaluate the efficacy of MBRP-SA on smoking abstinence and drinking reductions in a large-scale, fully powered trial. This study was registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03734666). • Both MBRP-SA and CBT were highly acceptable, meeting a priori benchmarks. • Both MBRP-SA and CBT had significant reductions in tobacco and alcohol use. • Telehealth was acceptable as a group-treatment delivery modality. • MBRP-SA had comparable outcomes to CBT on all metrics measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoking cessation treatments that are easily accessible and deliver intervention content at vulnerable moments (e.g., high negative affect) have great potential to impact tobacco abstinence. The current study examined the feasibility and acceptability of a multi-component Just-In-Time Adaptive Intervention (JITAI) for smoking cessation. Daily smokers interested in quitting were consented to participate in a 6-week cessation study. Visit 1 occurred 4 days pre-quit, Visit 2 was on the quit day, Visit 3 occurred 3 days post-quit, Visit 4 was 10 days post-quit, and Visit 5 was 28 days post-quit. During the first 2 weeks (Visits 1-4), the JITAI delivered brief mindfulness/motivational strategies via smartphone in real-time based on negative affect or smoking behavior detected by wearable sensors. Participants also attended 5 in-person visits, where brief cessation counseling (Visits 1-4) and nicotine replacement therapy (Visits 2-5) were provided. Outcomes were feasibility and acceptability; biochemically-confirmed abstinence was also measured. Participants (N = 43) were 58.1 % female (AgeMean = 49.1, mean cigarettes per day = 15.4). Retention through follow-up was high (83.7 %). For participants with available data (n = 38), 24 (63 %) met the benchmark for sensor wearing, among whom 16 (67 %) completed at least 60 % of strategies. Perceived ease of wearing sensors (Mean = 5.1 out of 6) and treatment satisfaction (Mean = 3.6 out of 4) were high. Biochemically-confirmed abstinence was 34 % at Visit 4 and 21 % at Visit 5. Overall, the feasibility of this novel multi-component intervention for smoking cessation was mixed but acceptability was high. Future studies with improved technology will decrease participant burden and better detect key intervention moments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Outcome expectancies have been identified as key components of behavior change. Expectancies related to affect control are hypothesized to play an important role in smoking cessation, such that smokers may be more likely to lapse if they believe they can control their affect by smoking and less likely if they believe they can control their affect by means other than smoking. However, little is known about whether real-time, real-world changes in affect control expectancies influence smoking lapse during a quit attempt.Methods: A diverse sample (N = 369) of adult smokers completed ecological momentary assessment of smoking expectancies and lapse for 28 days following a quit attempt. Multilevel logistic regression was used to examine whether the difference score of positive smoking outcome expectancies (the belief that smoking would improve mood) minus positive coping outcome expectancies (the belief that something other than smoking would improve mood) was related to smoking lapse in daily life.Results: There was a significant within-person association between the expectancies difference score and lapse likelihood. When the difference score was 1 unit above a person's typical level, odds of lapse increased by 18.65 % (β = 0.174, SE = 0.024, p < .0001, OR = 1.189, 95 % CI [1.135, 1.247]).Conclusion: Smokers undergoing a quit attempt were more likely to lapse in moments when the difference in the belief that smoking would improve their mood minus the belief that something other than smoking would improve their mood was larger. This work has relevance for tailoring interventions to both cultivate positive coping outcome expectancies and reduce smoking outcome expectancies, and informs theoretical models about the dynamic nature of outcome expectancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many research and clinical teams have transitioned their projects to a remote-based format, weighing the pros and cons of making such a potentially disruptive decision. One key aspect of this decision is related to the patient population, with underserved populations possibly benefiting from the increased reach of telehealth, while also encountering technology barriers that may limit accessibility. Early in the pandemic, our team shifted a group-based, smoking cessation and alcohol modification treatment trial to a remote-based format. Our population included individuals who concurrently wanted to quit smoking and modify their alcohol use. This paper describes technical and logistical considerations of transitioning from in-person to remote-based delivery for group-based treatment, including the impact upon study staff, group facilitators, participants, and the institution. Remotely-delivered group treatment may be valuable not only in response to pandemic-related restrictions, but it may also offer an alternative treatment-delivery modality with independent benefits in terms of population reach, costs, and pragmatics for clients, staff, and institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disability in the U.S. Empirical evidence suggests that engaging in evidence-based self-regulatory strategies (e.g., behavioral substitution, mindful attention) can improve smokers' ability to resist craving and build self-regulatory skills. However, poor engagement represents a major barrier to maximizing the impact of self-regulatory strategies. This paper describes the protocol for Mobile Assistance for Regulating Smoking (MARS) – a research study designed to inform the development of a mobile health (mHealth) intervention for promoting real-time, real-world engagement in evidence-based self-regulatory strategies. The study will employ a 10-day Micro-Randomized Trial (MRT) enrolling 112 smokers attempting to quit. Utilizing a mobile smoking cessation app, the MRT will randomize each individual multiple times per day to either: (a) no intervention prompt; (b) a prompt recommending brief (low effort) cognitive and/or behavioral self-regulatory strategies; or (c) a prompt recommending more effortful cognitive or mindfulness-based strategies. Prompts will be delivered via push notifications from the MARS mobile app. The goal is to investigate whether, what type of, and under what conditions prompting the individual to engage in self-regulatory strategies increases engagement. The results will build the empirical foundation necessary to develop a mHealth intervention that effectively utilizes intensive longitudinal self-report and sensor-based assessments of emotions, context and other factors to engage an individual in the type of self-regulatory activity that would be most beneficial given their real-time, real-world circumstances. This type of mHealth intervention holds enormous potential to expand the reach and impact of smoking cessation treatments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]