Trial reportNicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco2022
Time-Varying Mediation of Pharmacological Smoking Cessation Treatments on Smoking Lapse via Craving, Cessation Fatigue, and Negative Mood.
Trial report in Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
6 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- Different doses, durations and modes of delivery of nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Nicotine receptor partial agonists for smoking cessation.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Time-varying mediated effects of the nicotine patch on smoking before and after a quit attempt when it is added to varenicline and counseling.Drug and alcohol dependence · 2026Trial
- Sex-Specific Mediation of Pre-Quit Smoking Reduction: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Controlled Trial Extending Varenicline Preloading.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2025Trial
- Assessing cigarette smoking withdrawal in unmedicated individuals: Validating the Wisconsin Smoking Withdrawal Scales Version 3 (WSWS3).Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2026Article
- Practical challenges in mediation analysis: a guide for applied researchers.Health services & outcomes research methodology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
introductionThe addictive nature of nicotine makes smoking cessation an extremely challenging process. With prolonged exposure, tobacco smoking transforms from being a positive reinforcer to a negative one, as smoking is used to mitigate aversive withdrawal symptoms. Studying the variations in withdrawal symptoms, especially during their peak in the first week of a quit attempt, could help improve cessation treatment for the future. The time-varying mediation model effectively studies whether altering withdrawal symptoms act as mediators in the pathway between treatment and cessation. AIMS AND
methodsThis secondary data analysis of a randomized clinical smoking cessation trial of three pharmacotherapy regimens (nicotine patch, varenicline, and nicotine patch + mini-lozenge) analyzes ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data from the first 4 weeks post-target quit day (TQD). We assess whether withdrawal symptoms (eg, negative mood, cessation fatigue, and craving) mediate the pathway between pharmacotherapy and daily smoking status and whether this effect varies over time.
resultsWe found a statistically significant time-varying mediation effect of varenicline on smoking status through craving, which shows decreasing risk of lapse via reduction in craving. We did not find significant time-varying mediation effects through negative mood and cessation fatigue.
conclusionsThis study supports the importance of craving suppression in the smoking cessation process. It also helped identify specific timepoints when withdrawal symptoms increased that would likely benefit from targeted cessation intervention strategies. IMPLICATIONS: This study aimed to understand the underlying dynamic mechanisms of the smoking cessation process using a new analytical approach that capitalizes on the intensive longitudinal data collected via EMAs. The findings from this study further elucidate the smoking cessation process and provide insight into behavioral intervention targets and the timing of such interventions through the estimation of time-varying mediation effects.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.