Background Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the world, and long-term abstinence rates remain modest. Mindfulness Training (MT) has begun to show benefits in a number of psychiatric disorders, including depression, anxiety and more recently, in addictions. However MT has not been evaluated for smoking cessation through randomized clinical trials. Methods 88 treatment-seeking, nicotine-dependent adults who were smoking an average of 20 cigarettes/day were randomly assigned to receive MT or the American Lung Association’s Freedom From Smoking (FFS) treatment. Both treatments were delivered twice weekly over four weeks (eight sessions total) in a group format. The primary outcomes were expired-air carbon monoxide-confirmed 7-day point prevalence abstinence and number of cigarettes/day at the end of the 4-week treatment and at a follow-up interview at week 17. Results 88% of individuals who received MT and 84% of individuals who received FFS completed treatment. Compared to those randomized to the FFS intervention, individuals who received MT showed a greater rate of reduction in cigarette use during treatment and maintained these gains during follow-up (F=11.11, p = .001). They also exhibited a trend toward greater point prevalence abstinence rate at the end of treatment (36% vs. 15%, p = .063), which was significant at the 17-week follow-up (31% vs. 6%, p = .012). Conclusions This initial trial of Mindfulness Training may confer benefits greater than those associated with current standard treatments for smoking cessation.
This study examined the representational nature of configural response learning using a task that required simultaneous keypresses with 2 or 3 fingers, similar to the production of chords on the piano. If the benefits of learning are related to the retrieval of individual stimulus-response mappings, performance should depend on the frequencies of the individual responses forming each chord. Alternatively, learning may involve the encoding of configural information concerning the relationship between the chord elements. In Experiment 1, training was restricted to a subset of the 120 possible 3-element chords. Probe blocks included the practiced chords, chords composed of novel configurations of practiced elements (reconfigured), and chords that contained a new element (new). Practiced chords were performed faster than reconfigured chords, indicating learning involves the encoding of configural information. Experiment 2 showed that learning was not restricted to configurations within each hand. Experiments 3 and 4 demonstrated that learning was largely response based.
Objective This study focused on the efficacy of cognitive training for verbal learning and memory deficits in a population of older Veterans with alcohol use disorders. Methods Veterans with alcohol use disorders, who were in outpatient treatment at VA facilities and in early phase recovery (N = 31), were randomized to receive a 3-month trial of daily cognitive training plus work therapy (n = 15) or work therapy alone (n = 16), along with treatment as usual. Participants completed assessments at baseline and at 3- and 6-month follow-ups; the Hopkins Verbal Learning Task (HVLT) was the primary outcome measure. Results Participants were primarily male (97%), in their mid-50’s (M = 55.16, SD = 5.16), and had been sober for 1.64 (SD = 2.81) months. Study retention was excellent (91% at 3-month follow-up) and adherence to treatment in both conditions was very good. On average, participants in the cognitive training condition had more than 41 hours of cognitive training, and both conditions had more than 230 hours of productive activity. HVLT results at 3-month follow-up revealed significant condition effects favoring cognitive training for verbal learning (HVLT Trial-3 T-score, p < .005; Cohen’s d = 1.3) and verbal memory (HVLT Total T-score, p < .01, Cohen’s d = 1.1). Condition effects were sustained at 6-month follow-up. At Baseline, 55.9% of participants showed a significant deficit in verbal memory and 58.8% showed a deficit in verbal learning compared with a premorbid estimate of Verbal IQ. At 3-month follow-up there was a significant reduction in the number of participants in the cognitive training condition with clinically significant verbal memory deficits (p < .01, NNT= 3.0) compared with the work therapy alone condition, and a trend toward significance for verbal learning deficits, which was not sustained at 6-month follow-up. Conclusions This NIDA-funded pilot study demonstrates that cognitive training within the context of another activating intervention (work therapy) may have efficacy in remediating verbal learning and memory deficits in patients with alcohol use disorder. Findings indicate a large effect for cognitive training in this pilot study, which suggests that further research is warranted. This study is is registered on Clinicaltrials.gov (NCT 01410110).
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