View clinical trials related to Nicotine Addiction.
Filter by:Psychosocial treatments for drug abuse benefit some patients (Rawson et al 2004), but there is an urgent need for new treatment approaches that can improve treatment outcomes. One new approach involves facilitation of extinction of conditioned responses through the use of d-cycloserine, a partial agonist at the NMDA glycine site. This approach has proved useful for the treatment of several anxiety disorders. For example, treatment with d-cycloserine enhanced the efficacy of behavioral treatments for acrophobia (Ressler et al 2004) and social phobia (Hofmann et al 2006) by enhancing extinction of conditioned fear responses. This suggests that d-cycloserine has potential to enhance the efficacy of behavioral treatments for drug dependence by enhancing extinction of conditioned responses to drug cues. In this Phase I Cutting-Edge Basic Research Awards (CEBRA) application we propose a proof-of-concept study to examine effects of treatment with d-cycloserine for facilitating extinction of craving provoked by exposure to cigarette smoking cues. The benefits of this treatment approach together with cognitive behavioral treatment for reducing cigarette smoking will then be determined. Smoking cues will be presented using an established virtual reality simulator(Bordnick et al 2004; Bordnick et al 2005a)
Background: - Central nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are primary targets for the action of nicotine. In addition to being involved in tobacco dependence, they are also involved in a variety of brain disorders, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Researchers are interested in developing better ways to study the action of nAChRs to improve treatments for smoking cessation and other problems affected by these receptors. These new study methods may involve different approaches to positron emission tomography (PET) scanning, which can show brain activity related to nAChRs. Objectives: - To evaluate appropriate and useful doses of radiotracers used in PET scanning of nAChRs in the brains of nonsmokers/former smokers, light smokers, and heavy smokers. Eligibility: - Individuals between 18 and 50 years of age who fall into one of the following groups: (1) nonsmokers or former smokers who have not smoked for the past 2 years, (2) light/situational smokers, or (3) heavy smokers (at least 15 cigarettes/day for the past 2 years). Design: - Each participant will undergo up to three PET studies, given approximately1 month apart. Each study will take approximately 8 hours to complete. - Participants will provide urine and breath samples before the study and at the start of the study, which will be tested for chemicals that may interfere with the study. - Depending on the study, some of the smoking participants may receive a nicotine patch to wear during the PET scan. - On the day of the study, participants will receive a dose of a radiotracer (a drug used in PET scanning) given either as a single injection or as an injection followed by a continuous infusion, and will have a series of PET scans over the next 7 hours and provide blood samples during that time. - Participants will return for a follow-up visit 1 month after the end of the study.
Despite the significant health, social and economic costs of cigarette smoking, 17% of Ontarians still currently smoke. Use of smoking cessation pharmacotherapy such as Zyban (bupropion HCl) has been shown to double quit rates but such medications are under-utilized by smokers attempting to quit. It has been suggested that the high price of pharmacotherapy may act as a barrier to accessing such treatment.The main objective of this study is to evaluate the methods and effectiveness of providing smokers who want to quit with 8 weeks of free Zyban in combination with smoking cessation counselling through family health teams and community health centres across the province. Hypothesis: Ontario smokers who receive 8-weeks of free bupropion in combination with brief counselling will have higher smoking cessation rates than the standard population cessation rates.