Tobacco addiction study: It’s partly in your head

Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have found that the brain response to nicotine is affected by the belief of the smoker.

A smoker who believes, inaccurately, that nicotine is present in a cigarette still will feel satisfied.
These findings were published this summer in the journal Frontiers in Psychology and could lead to changes in the way people handle the idea of giving up nicotine.

Researchers used a functional MRI to examine the brains of two dozen chronic smokers in a double blind study. Smokers were divided into four groups. Two groups smoked nicotine cigarettes but half thought the cigarette did not contain nicotine. Two other groups smoked a non-nicotine cigarette. Half thought the cigarette did contain nicotine.

The study found that if participants believed that the drug was present their craving for nicotine was satisfied.

According to Smokefree.org, there are dozens of other studies in the works related to cessation of smoking, and several are free to join, relying on smartphone applications for data collection.

Data from these studies could prove useful during the Great American Smokeout event, which takes place this year on Nov. 18, 2016.

The Great American Smokeout is a day when smokers across the country, and those who love smokers and want them to make healthy choices, may take steps toward avoiding tobacco. Some create a plan to quit starting that day, some use that day to share information on tobacco addiction and its effects.