online automated self-hypnosis program

Conditions: Smoking; Pain; Stress

Summary: after developing professional quality materials (audio) for an affordable automated self-hypnosis intervention program for facilitating smoking cessation, stress and pain reduction, researchers aim to gain qualitative reviews of this program, and test its initial feasibility and effects on smoking cessation and reduction in pain and stress. in addition, this study seeks to determine whether higher hypnotizability, as measured by the hypnotic induction profile (assessed at baseline), is a moderator of improved outcome in these conditions.

the investigators are interested in recruiting individuals who report that they smoke cigarettes daily and are motivated to make a serious attempt at quitting, and individuals who report experiencing pain or stress, who are willing to try to use the hypnosis intervention and provide feedback regarding their experience with the intervention. the original intervention is an interactive hypnosis tool, developed by reveri health, utilizing periodic questions and answers to personalize the session progression and emulate the conversational nature of an in-person session designed based upon decades of clinical hypnosis research and experience at the stanford center on stress and health. the intervention is delivered through the amazon alexa platform's beta testing tool. participants will be provided with the alexa dot device, which is sold by amazon and widely used by consumers. later on, research participants will have the option of using an alexa-supported smartphone device without the alexa dot speaker. those enrolled later in the study will instead be offered the use of the interactive app also developed by reveri (www.reveri.com) independent of the alexa platform. what will be specific to this pilot is the hypnosis training approach, including the interactive nature of the program. the structure and the content of the hypnosis training program will be the same across the 3 mentioned modes of administration. the user interface for the app is the main difference.

Eligibility criteria:
inclusion/exclusion criteria for the three arms, with exceptions noted below: inclusion criteria: * 18 years or older * able to read and understand english * for the smokers, desire to quit smoking (specifically, report a motivation of ≥ 5 out of 10 to quit smoking on a 10-point likert-type scale), and report being a daily smoker for at least one year, smoking an average ≥ 5 cigarettes per day * for the pain group, report suffering from chronic pain syndromes, such as fibromyalgia or chronic low back pain * for the stress group, report experiencing moderate to extreme stress or anxiety in the past month * having access to wireless internet connection or mobile data exclusion criteria: * meeting criteria for drug abuse, including use of dissociative anesthetics, hallucinogens, opioids, cocaine, or amphetamine within the last 3 months * severe psychiatric or structural brain disease (i.e. psychosis, stroke with functional impairment, dementia) or current/recent risk to self * hearing impairment that would impede ability to listen the auditory intervention * major illnesses impacting the study results * for smokers, currently taking wellbutrin, chantix, or other pharmacological smoking cessation aids that could confound results of the study