NCT03744559

Behavioral Memory Modulation in Nicotine Addiction

Targeting Foundational Memory Processes in Nicotine Addiction: A Translational Clinical Neuroscience Study of a Retrieval-Extinction Intervention to Reduce Craving and Smoking Behavior

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 191 (actual)
• Sponsor: Medical University of South Carolina · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 25 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of the study is to see if a behavioral intervention known as retrieval-extinction training (RET) might affect craving in response to nicotine cues (e.g., pictures, videos and objects) and smoking behavior in men and women who smoke cigarettes.

Detailed description

In a recently published NIDA-funded study, the investigators found that lasting reductions in craving and smoking could be achieved with a brief behavioral intervention designed to alter memory processes underlying smoking-related nicotine addiction. The proposed project will replicate and extend these findings by 1) increasing the dose of intervention so as to bolster the observed treatment effects, 2) employing brain imaging methods to identify patterns of brain activity uniquely associated with the intervention and potentially predictive of treatment outcome, 3) extending follow-up period to more completely document the long-term effects of the intervention. Positive findings from this study could lead to the development of brief therapy that will not only improve treatment outcomes for smokers, but also be used in the treatment other substance use disorders and frequently co-occurring comorbidities such as PTSD.

Conditions

• Nicotine Use Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Retrieval Extinction Training (RET)	Retrieval extinction training (RET) is a behavioral intervention that involves cue-elicited retrieval followed by extinction training (i.e., massed unreinforced exposure to drug-associated cues). The first element of RET involves briefly presenting drug-associated cues to retrieve drug use memories. The second element, occurring after a brief interval, involves extinction training. It is argued that the initial retrieval of the memories prior to extinction training initiates a period of instability, which is followed by reconsolidation of the memories back into long-term storage. Extinction training during the period of instability is presumed to overwrite the original drug-associated cue with a non-drug-associated cue, to attenuate expression of drug-seeking behavior.
BEHAVIORAL	Control Retrieval Extinction Training (RET)	The control retrieval extinction training (RET) for the NR-E arms serves as the control intervention to the RET behavioral intervention. The first element of the control RET involves briefly presenting retrieval cues that contain neutral, non-smoking content. The second element, occurring after a brief interval, involves extinction training. Based on findings from the previous NIDA-funded R21, the R-E arm reported a significant 25 percent reduction in cigarettes smoked per day during the follow-up period versus the control NR-E arm.

Timeline

• Start date: 2019-02-04
• Primary completion: 2023-10-28
• Completion: 2023-11-01
• First posted: 2018-11-16
• Last updated: 2025-04-30
• Results posted: 2024-12-18

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States