Trial reportThe American journal of drug and alcohol abuse2013
Resisting the urge to smoke and craving during a smoking quit attempt on varenicline: results from a pilot fMRI study.
Trial report in The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Cue-Elicited Brain Activity and Treatment Outcomes in Substance Use Disorders: A Meta-Analysis.JAMA network open · 2025Pooled it
- DLPFC rTMS is more effective than sham or orbitofrontal stimulation for smoking cessation and alters frontal brain activity: A double-blind, sham-controlled randomized clinical trial.Journal of psychiatric research · 2026Trial
- Reduced executive and reward connectivity is associated with smoking cessation response to repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation: A double-blind, randomized, sham-controlled trial.Brain imaging and behavior · 2024Trial
- Varenicline as a treatment for cannabis use disorder: A placebo-controlled pilot trial.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2021Trial
- Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex reduces resting-state insula activity and modulates functional connectivity of the orbitofrontal cortex in cigarette smokers.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2017Trial
- Trial
- Changes in distinct brain systems identified with fMRI during smoking cessation treatment with varenicline: a review.Psychopharmacology · 2024Review
- Intermittent theta burst stimulation and functional connectivity in people living with HIV/AIDS who smoke tobacco cigarettes: a preliminary pilot study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Brain stimulation therapeutics.Addiction neuroscience · 2023Article
- Precision Preventive Medicine of Relapse in Smoking Cessation: Can MRI Inform the Search of Intermediate Phenotypes?Biology · 2021Review
- Comparisons of early and delayed abstainers and its effects on long-term smoking cessation in Taiwan.Substance abuse treatment, prevention, and policy · 2019Article
- Brain Responses to Cigarette-Related and Emotional Images in Smokers During Smoking Cessation: No Effect of Varenicline or Bupropion on the Late Positive Potential.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2019Article
- Discovery and development of varenicline for smoking cessation.Expert opinion on drug discovery · 2018Review
- Associations between pain intensity and urge to smoke: Testing the role of negative affect and pain catastrophizing.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2018Article
- Default mode network deactivation to smoking cue relative to food cue predicts treatment outcome in nicotine use disorder.Addiction biology · 2018Article
- Review
- Neuroimaging in Alcohol and Drug Dependence.Current behavioral neuroscience reports · 2014Article
- Probing smoking craving with a multidimensional approach: validation of the 12-item French-language version of the Questionnaire on Smoking Urges.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundVarenicline has been shown to reduce cigarette craving during a quit attempt.
objectivesUse BOLD fMRI to explore differences in smoking cue reactivity at baseline and after five weeks of varenicline smoking cessation treatment.
methodsTreatment-seeking nicotine-dependent adult smokers underwent BOLD fMRI scans with block presentation of visual smoking, neutral, and rest cues under two conditions: craving or resisting the urge to smoke at baseline and following 5 weeks of standard varenicline therapy. Data were analyzed using FMRI Expert Analysis Tool, version 5.98 of Functional Magnetic Imaging of the Brain Software Library focused on the smoking vs. neutral cue contrast at the individual and group level, Z>2.3 with cluster threshold p=0.05.
resultsTwenty-one participants were scanned at baseline and 16 completed the study; 10 were abstinent at the 2(nd) session, confirmed with urinary cotinine. In the Crave Condition no significant differences were found between the abstinent and non-abstinent groups at either time point. During the baseline Resist Condition, the abstinent group compared to the non-abstinent group demonstrated activation in a distributed network involved in alertness, learning and memory. Additionally, within the abstinent group, increased activation of the superior frontal gyrus was found at baseline compared to week 5.
conclusionSuccessful smoking cessation with varenicline is associated with increased activation, prior to a quit attempt, in brain areas related to attentiveness and memory while resisting the urge to smoke Scientific Significance: Varenicline may exert effects by both reducing craving and enhancing resistance to smoking urges during cue-elicited craving.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.