Tobacco Craving and Triggers in Persons With Schizophrenia
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01846065. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
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Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Investigators have recently completed a pilot study exploring the safety and efficacy of using a virtual-reality based cue platform to elicit craving in smokers with schizophrenia(SWS)(Wehring et al, unpublished). In this study, participants with schizophrenia (n=16) showed increased attention to cigarettes and changes in craving measures when participating in the VR craving platform. In addition, participants tolerated the VR environment without undue adverse effects or exacerbation of symptoms. Adverse effects from the VR environment did not differ from that in a non-mentally ill population, and included headache, nausea, and dizziness as most commonly occurring factors. Persons in this pilot also showed acceptable rates of Immersion and Presence in the VR environment, showing the potential use of this form of environment for this and other purposes. In this study, investigators will examine virtual reality cue-reactivity in smokers with schizophrenia, with a focus on the relationship of cue-reactivity with self-identified triggers/cues. Smokers with schizophrenia often identify specific cues that trigger craving. Many of these are environmental (scent, sight of smoking paraphernalia or cigarettes, related objects, or social situations), however, a significant amount of smokers describe emotionally-based factors (sadness, being upset, etc.) as primary cues and triggers. Most methods used to elicit craving in experimental studies are executed via using environmental cues like sight of cigarettes or smoking paraphernalia. It is not known if smokers with schizophrenia(SWS) who are strongly emotionally triggered will be responsive to environmental triggers in a cue-elicited craving platform. This is an important research question, as the testing of anti-craving interventions should be generalizable for use across SWS with differing triggers to smoking. The VR-based environmental program from our pilot study, which includes sight, scent, and social cues, will be used to test pre-identified environmental cues/triggers and their effects on cue-elicited craving in 30 SWS. Subjective reports, mood and emotion measures, and objective physiological measurements will be used to identify and quantify environmental craving responsivity as well as tonic craving. Given the high prevalence of smoking among individuals with schizophrenia, understanding some of the environmental factors that serve to maintain nicotine dependence is a critical step in improving smoking cessation treatment outcomes. Establishing and validating a model of cue-elicited responsivity will allow future investigations of craving, and ultimately designs for studying the efficacy of anti-craving medications in people with schizophrenia.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01846065
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Observational
- Phase
- Not listed
- Enrollment
- 45 participants
Conditions and interventions
Conditions
Interventions
Not listed
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years to 55 Years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Sep 2013 (Type not available)
- Primary completion
- Jun 2016 (Actual)
- Completion
- Jun 30, 2017 (Actual)
- Last update posted
- Sep 25, 2019
2013 – 2017
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maryland Psychiatric Research Center | Catonsville | Maryland | 21228 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01846065, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Sep 25, 2019 · Synced Oct 13, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete public registry record, listed eligibility criteria, and available contact information for NCT01846065 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.