Chatbot for Online Support Groups to Treat Tobacco Addiction

May 20, 2026 updated by: Cornelia Pechmann, University of California, Irvine

Intelligent Chatbot for Online Support Groups to Treat Tobacco Addiction

Investigators will conduct a pilot RCT to test the efficacy of an intelligent chatbot to aid small, private, quit-smoking peer support groups. Participants will be randomized to an intervention arm (chatbot-enhanced support group), or a control arm (support group only). In the intervention arm (N=60), each support group will be connected to an intelligent chatbot running on a secure local server as a trained LLM (large language model). The intelligent chatbot will function as an additional member of the GroupMe support group, but a member that only responds if no human does so. In the control arm (N=60), the support groups will be connected to an automated message-posting bot running on a secure local server. This automated message-posting bot will lack the response capabilities of the intelligent chatbot. But both the intelligent chatbot and the automated message-posting bot will post a pre-written daily discussion topic to encourage participants to discuss issues known to facilitate tobacco cessation or group bonding.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

Investigators will conduct a pilot RCT to test the efficacy of an intelligent chatbot to aid small, private, quit-smoking peer support groups. For this pilot RCT, investigators will use a 2-armed parallel group trial design with an active treatment concurrent control. Participants will be randomized to the intervention arm (chatbot-enhanced support group), or the control arm (support group only). All groups will run on GroupMe, a free group chat platform. Investigators will recruit cohorts of 30 smokers, in 4 waves (N=120). After recruitment is complete, a statistician will randomly assign 15 participants to the intervention arm and 15 participants to the control arm. Investigators will place 15 people in each support group arm to ensure a critical mass even with the expected participant attrition. After randomization, each participant will stay in their assigned arm for study duration. Prior to study start, each participant will receive 8 weeks of combination NRT, including nicotine patch and gum or lozenges (their choice), consistent with clinical practice guidelines for tobacco cessation. In the intervention arm (N=60), each support group will be connected to the intelligent chatbot running on a secure local server as a trained LLM (large language model). This chatbot will monitor all posts in the group and seek to comprehend these posts using the training it has been provided. If a group member makes a post and no one responds with about 10 seconds, the chatbot will respond using one of its 25 response libraries created from knowledge bases, which contain over 1k responses in total. In effect, the intelligent chatbot will function as an additional member of the GroupMe support group, but a member that only responds if no human does so. Furthermore, every day at 5 PM Pacific, 8 PM Eastern, the chatbot will post a pre-written daily discussion topic, to encourage participants to discuss issues known to facilitate tobacco cessation or group bonding. In the control arm (N=60), the support groups will be connected to an automated message-posting bot running on a secure local server. This automated message-posting bot will lack the response capabilities of the intelligent chatbot; it will not respond to posts if no human group member does but, instead, remain silent. However, it will post the same daily discussion topic, and at the same time of day, as the intelligent chatbot. Each night, investigators will download each group's past 24-hour posts. These downloads will show each post verbatim along with the datetime stamp and poster username (including posts by the chatbot and automated message-posting bot). Using these downloaded posts, investigators will measure the primary outcome: the total number of posts made by each human participant, excluding the chatbot or bot. In addition, investigators will measure participants' bio-confirmed smoking abstinence and their NRT usage at 1-month and at 3-month intervention end. Trained research staff who are blind to study arm will contact participants via email, text and phone. They will ask participants the following 4 questions: Over the past 7 days, how many cigarettes have they smoked? Over the past 7 days, how many times have they vaped or use e-cigarettes with nicotine? Over the past 7 days, how many times have they used tobacco products other than cigarettes, e.g., cigars, pipe, snuff, chew, snus, or hookah? Over the past 7 days, how many times have they used Nicotine Replacement Therapy or NRT, e.g., patches, gum or lozenges? At 3-month intervention end, investigators will seek to bioconfirm self-reported smoking abstinence. If a participant reports no use of tobacco and no NRT use over the past 7 days, or refuses to answer, investigators will mail out a cotinine saliva test and set up a video (e.g., zoom or FaceTime) appointment at a convenient time for them to take it. Each participant's saliva test will be observed by trained research staff blind to study arm. If a participant recently used NRT, the saliva test will pick up that NRT, and so the test will not be a valid indicator of their smoking status. Therefore, investigators will not give a saliva test current NRT users and instead record them as NRT users. Investigators will incentivize participants to take the saliva test with gift cards.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
120

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact

The name and contact information for the person who can answer enrollment questions for a clinical study. Each location where the study is being conducted may also have a specific contact, who may be better able to answer those questions.
  • Name: Cornelia A Pechmann, PhD
  • Phone Number: 3108920619
  • Email: cpechman@uci.edu

Study Contact Backup

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Cigarette smokers (can also use e-cigarettes)
  • Ages 18-75 years
  • English speaking
  • Smart phone with unlimited data
  • 100 cigarettes lifetime
  • Prepared to quit smoking within 10 days of study start
  • Active text and email
  • Use of social media or group messaging
  • Home address provided
  • Contact information for a collateral provided
  • Setup of a GroupMe account for study

Exclusion Criteria:

  • No NRT health contraindications
  • 5+ cigarettes per day
  • Not an illicit drug user
  • Not a daily marijuana/cannabis user

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: test: support group with intelligent chatbot
When participants post to their support groups, the intelligent chatbot will detect relevant post types and generate responses which will be posted back to them and their group, if no human responds to the post within about 10 seconds. The intelligent chatbot will also post a daily discussion topic.
Behavioral: online quit-smoking support group with intelligent chatbot
In the intervention arm (N=60), each quit-smoking peer support group will be connected to an intelligent chatbot running on a secure local server as a trained LLM (large language model). This chatbot will monitor all posts in the group and seek to comprehend these posts using the training it has been provided. If a group member makes a post and no one responds with about 10 seconds, the chatbot will respond using one of its 25 response libraries created from knowledge bases, which contain over 1k responses in total. In effect, the intelligent chatbot will function as an additional member of the GroupMe support group, but a member that only responds if no human does so.
Active Comparator: control: support group with unintelligent bot
The unintelligent chatbot will not respond to participants' posts; it will merely post a daily discussion topic.
Behavioral: online quit-smoking support group with unintelligent bot
In the control arm (N=60), the support groups will be connected to our original automated message-posting bot running on our secure local server. This automated message-posting bot will lack the response capabilities of the intelligent chatbot; it will not respond to posts if no human group member does but, instead, remain silent. However, it will post the same daily discussion topic, and at the same time of day, as the intelligent chatbot.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Overall posts per participant
Time Frame: End of 90-day intervention
Each night, our study website will download each group's past 24-hour posts in both the test and control conditions labeled by date and poster.
End of 90-day intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Bio-confirmed smoking abstinence
Time Frame: End of 90-day intervention
We will measure smoking abstinence at 90-day intervention end, bioconfirmed with a saliva test, to conduct a power analysis for a larger RCT.
End of 90-day intervention
NRT use at 1-month
Time Frame: 30 days after intervention start
In a survey (using email, text or phone), 30 days after intervention start, we will measure past 7-day use of Nicotine Replacement Therapy or NRT, for descriptive purposes, e.g. to ensure no adverse effects on NRT use.
30 days after intervention start
nrt use at intervention end
Time Frame: End of 90-day intervention
In a survey (using email, text or phone) at the end of the 90-day intervention, we will measure past 7-day use of Nicotine Replacement Therapy or NRT, for descriptive purposes, e.g. to ensure no adverse effects on NRT use.
End of 90-day intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
University of California, Irvine

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Cornelia A. Pechmann, PhD, University of California, Irvine

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
December 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
June 1, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
June 1, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
April 23, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
April 23, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
May 1, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
May 22, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
May 20, 2026

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • 919

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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