Massachusetts General Hospital

Overview

Several cutting edge behavioral interventions are being used in clinical trials for prevention of relapse to smoking, including cognitive remediation approaches, mindfulness practice and neurofeedback of brain activity during active craving.

Research from the Massachusetts General Hospital Schizophrenia Program and others has shown that, with appropriate treatment, smokers with schizophrenia can successfully quit smoking without worsening of their symptoms of schizophrenia. This work has recently been highlighted in clinical practice guidelines recommending that all people with schizophrenia spectrum disorders who smoke and want to quit be offered bupropion with or without nicotine replacement therapy along with behavioral support.

We offer a range of smoking cessation services, both routine and through clinical trials.

• Specialized individual and group cognitive behavioral therapy
• Nicotine replacement therapy, bupropion, varenicline and experimental treatments for smoking cessation
• Smoking relapse prevention treatment with varenicline, a cognitive enhancing agent combined with cue exposure therapy, mindfulness meditation and neurofeedback approaches.

The program is not limited to patients in our psychiatric care at Mass General, it’s also available to the public as a health resource through our research program. Read more information about our program.

Research Projects

• Extended duration varenicline for prevention of relapse to smoking in people with schizophrenia
• Glycine transport inhibition for nicotine dependence in schizophrenia
• Cooperative drug discovery for the treatment of nicotine dependence