Conditions: Nicotine Dependence
Keywords: Tobacco Smoking Weight Weight perception Naltrexone
Allocation: RANDOMIZED | Intervention model: PARALLEL
Enrollment: 172
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
Weight gain after quitting smoking is an important barrier to treatment for many smokers. This study will test a drug called naltrexone with weight-concerned smokers to investigate whether or not this drug both improves smoking cessation quit rates and minimizes post quit weight gain.

Detailed description:
This is a 6-month randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trial of 25 mg naltrexone for smoking cessation in a sample of 270 male and female weight-concerned smokers. Participants also receive transdermal nicotine replacement therapy during the first 8 weeks of the study, which they begin on their quit date. Naltrexone study medication will be started a week before their quit date and continued through the six-month period. Brief behavioral counseling and research assessments are provided for two sessions prior to the quit date and then weekly for two weeks, bi-weekly for a month and every four weeks thereafter. A follow-up appointment is completed at 12 months after participants' quit date.

The primary outcomes are six-month point prevalence abstinence and post-cessation weight gain for those who are continuously abstinent (not even a puff).

Secondary outcomes include an examination of alcohol consumption, evaluation of urges, other measures of smoking cessation success, point prevalence abstinence at 12 months, and food preferences. A number of tertiary measures will be obtained for examining predictors of smoking cessation, weight gain, and naltrexone response.

Arms:
arm 1: Arm 1 (Experimental) = Transdermal nicotine replacement (21 mg for first 6 weeks post-quit then 14 mg for 2 weeks) once per day + Naltrexone 25 mg oral capsule once per day arm 2: Arm 2 (Placebo Comparator) = Transdermal nicotine replacement (21 mg for first 6 weeks post-quit then 14 mg for 2 weeks) once per day + Placebo Naltrexone 25 mg oral capsule once per day

Interventions: intervention 1: Naltrexone intervention 2: Transdermal nicotine replacement intervention 3: Behavioral counseling
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Drug: Naltrexone 12.5 mg oral capsule once per day for 1 day then 25 mg oral capsule once per day for 27 weeks intervention 2: Transdermal nicotine replacement (21 mg for first 6 weeks post-quit then 14 mg for 2 weeks) once per day + naltrexone 25 mg oral capsule once per day intervention 3: Brief behavioral counseling and research assessments are provided for two sessions prior to the quit date and then weekly for two weeks, bi-weekly for a month and every four weeks thereafter.

Protocol document: