Examining Yoga's Effects on Smoking

As the leading cause of preventable death in the US and a major cause for chronic disease/mortality worldwide, smoking represents a major public health issue in need of effective interventions to reduce its burden. The development of such strategies is best directed by basic research on the biobehavioral processes underlying smoking maintenance and relapse. A major predictor of cessation failure is nicotine withdrawal, especially among individuals low in distress tolerance (DT). Reducing nicotine withdrawal-related distress and relapse in low DT smokers may require the regulation of certain hormones involved in the hypothalamic pituitary axis (HPA-axis) (i.e., the human stress response). Regular practice of yoga, a mindfulness-based form of physical activity, emerges as a promising strategy for regulating the HPA-axis, decreasing withdrawal symptoms, and increasing DT, thus promoting smoking cessation success. We will randomly assign 50 smokers (≥10 cigarettes daily) low in DT to either an 8-week yoga intervention \[YOGA\] or a waitlist control \[WL\] prior to undergoing a self-guided quit attempt. We hypothesize participants assigned to the yoga condition (relative to waitlist) will differ on various outcomes assessed throughout the intervention (e.g., quit status, negative affective states, stress, hormonal changes, withdrawal) and, quit day, and throughout the 2-week quit follow-up period. More specifically, we hypothesize that certain typical maladaptive, during-withdrawal changes may be attenuated through YOGA. We also hope to obtain initial effect sizes of the advantage of yoga compared to waitlist for point-prevalent abstinence at two weeks following an unaided quit attempt.