Decision Support for Smoking Cessation in Young Adults With Severe Mental Illness

May 30, 2018 updated by: Mary F. Brunette, MD, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Up to 77% of young people with severe mental illnesses smoke, a rate that is up to five times higher than the rate of daily smoking in other young adults. Contrary to popular belief, smoking tobacco does not provide any benefit for mental illness symptom control. People with severe mental illnesses (SMI: schizophrenia and severe mood disorders) are dying, on average, 25 years earlier than those without SMI. Much of this early mortality is due to higher rates of heart and lung diseases, cancers, strokes, and diabetes.

Cessation of smoking in these transition-age young adults can prevent cancer and increase life expectancy to that of non-smokers. Combination treatments are effective in this group and therefore key to improving outcomes, but few SMI smokers use them despite their interest in quitting. Motivational interventions for cessation increase interest in quitting, but public mental health clinicians do not deliver them, in part due to economic reasons. Thus cost effective methods to deliver motivational interventions to engage young smokers with SMI into treatment are needed.

To address this gap, we have developed an electronic decision support system (EDSS) for smoking cessation that is specifically tailored for smokers with SMI, who tend to have cognitive deficits and limited computer experience. Similar to EDSSs developed for other health problems, this EDSS provides information and motivational exercises within an easy-to-use, web-based computer program that can be used with minimal or no staff assistance. Initial piloting of the EDSS in middle-aged SMI smokers showed excellent usability and promising efficacy. Pilot-testing among young patients suggested that the EDSS increased motivation to quit smoking and provided direction to adapt the format and content of the EDSS for young SMI smokers.

The purpose of this proposal is to further develop the motivational decision support system and to test its ability to motivate young smokers with SMI to quit smoking with cessation treatment.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The research will take place over 2 years at the Long Island Zucker Hillside Hospital system. In Year 1, we will adapt our electronic decision support system, a web-based motivational tool, for young smokers with severe mental illness. We will first identify beliefs of young smokers with severe mental illness that impede use of smoking cessation treatments. Then, the decision support system will be revised to change these beliefs, field-tested for usability, and improved as needed. In Year 2, we will conduct a randomized control trial of the newly revised version of the system among 60 young smokers with severe psychotic disorders.

In the controlled trial, participants will be assessed at baseline for mental health symptoms and smoking behavior and history, and then randomized to use the system or a computerized public health pamphlet (control condition) within two weeks. Participants will be assessed again at 14-week follow-up for clinician-confirmed initiation of smoking cessation treatment (main outcome), beliefs, and smoking characteristics. Analyses will assess whether use of the decision support system results in greater initiation of cessation treatment (main outcome), and changes in beliefs about treatment, than use of the control intervention.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

58

Phase

  • 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 Locations

  • United States
    • New Hampshire
      • Manchester, New Hampshire, United States, 03103
        • Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester
      • Nashua, New Hampshire, United States, 03060
        • Greater Nashua Mental Health Center
    • New York
      • Glen Oaks, New York, United States, 11004
        • Zucker-Hillside Hospital

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

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 30 years (Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

English-speaking; non-pregnant/nursing; daily smokers; age 18-30; psychiatrically stable; in treatment in the Zucker Hillside Hospital system; diagnosed with SMI (schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or mood disorder with psychotic features from medical chart); willing and able to give informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

(Phase 4 only): current (within the past month) use of evidence-based smoking cessation treatment (indicating the subject is already motivated), psychiatric instability (Modified Colorado Symptom Index score >45), current untreated substance use disorder (SUD)

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: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Electronic Decision Support System
The Electronic Decision Support System is a web-based computer program designed to motivate, educate, and engage people with severe mental illness into evidence-based smoking cessation treatment.
Behavioral: Electronic Decision Support System
Placebo Comparator: Control Computer Program
A computer program aimed to educate people about smoking cessation treatment.
Behavioral: Electronic Decision Support System

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of Participants Who Utilized Smoking Cessation Treatment
Time Frame: 14 week follow-up
Assesses through clinician confirmation any engagement in behavioral smoking cessation treatment and/or smoking cessation medication treatment.
14 week follow-up

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Number of Participants With Biologically Confirmed Abstinence
Time Frame: 14 weeks
Abstinence - self report for past 7 days confirmed with breath Carbon Monoxide <9 ppm
14 weeks

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center

Collaborators

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Mary F. Brunette, MD, Dartmouth College

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 (Actual)

January 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 22, 2018

Study Completion (Actual)

February 22, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 25, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 28, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

January 30, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 27, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 30, 2018

Last Verified

May 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • R21CA158863-01A1 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

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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