New Grant: Researchers Aim to Help Vets Feel Ready to Quit Smoking

From left: UW-CTRI Researchers Elana Brubaker, Dr. Jess Cook, and Kirsten Webster will coordinate the new study. 
From left: UW-CTRI Researchers Elana Brubaker, Dr. Jess Cook, and Kirsten Webster will coordinate the new study.

While smoking is the leading cause of preventable disease and death among US Veterans, only 70 to 90 percent of Vets are ready to quit smoking when offered help.

Researchers from UW-CTRI and the VA hope to pinpoint how to help more Vets feel ready to quit smoking, thanks to a new $2.7 million grant from the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

The study will be the first to directly compare the use of nicotine lozenges versus varenicline among Vets who aren’t ready to quit but are ready to cut down.

vets fist bump“Offering varenicline to those unmotivated to make a quit attempt has great potential to engage many more Veterans in effective smoking treatment,” said Principal Investigator Dr. Jess Cook, “and increase quit attempts and quitting success.”

Cook, who leads UW-CTRI research on tobacco use among Veterans at the VA in Madison, said she is excited to see if varenicline markedly reduces smoking reward, withdrawal, and craving among Veterans who smoke but aren’t yet ready to try to quit.

The study will enroll 400 adults from three geographically diverse VA hospitals in Minneapolis, San Diego and Durham. Cook will lead the study from the VA in Madison, the coordinating center.

Half of participants will get nicotine lozenges, the other half varenicline. All participants will receive four phone counseling sessions focused on smoking reduction during the 12-week motivational treatment phase. UW-CTRI researchers Elana Brubaker and Kirsten Webster will coordinate the study and help with clinical supervision.

Any participants who decide to try quitting during the first 24 weeks of the study will continue their assigned study medication and get coaching to help them successfully quit.

The study team will measure how many participants in each treatment group are smoke-free after a year, how many reduce smoking, try to quit, or enter cessation treatment.

“We are grateful to our operational partner, the VA National Tobacco Treatment Program Office,” Cook said, “as well as to our collaborators at the participating VA hospitals. Our Veterans have done so much for our country, and we’re excited to conduct this research to help them.”