Varenicline Tartrate With Telephone-Based Counseling and/or Internet-Based Counseling in Helping Adults Stop Smoking

OBJECTIVES:

• Determine the effectiveness of varenicline with telephone counseling vs Internet-based counseling vs telephone counseling and Internet-based smoking cessation interventions in adult smokers.
• Determine individual or group differences in patients undergoing these interventions.
• Determine heterogeneity in responsiveness in regard to the Classification and Regression Tree Analysis in patients undergoing these interventions.
• Determine the effectiveness of these interventions in regard to recruitment, implementation, barriers to treatment, exposure to intervention, satisfaction with treatment, treatment contamination, and program maintenance.
• Determine the cost-effectiveness of these interventions.

OUTLINE: This is a randomized, open-label study. Patients are randomized to 1 of 3 intervention arms.

• Arm I: Patients undergo a proactive telephone-based (PTB) smoking cessation program.
• Arm II: Patients undergo a web-based (WB) smoking cessation program.
• Arm III: Patients undergo an integrated PTB/WB smoking cessation program. Beginning 1 week before the target quit date, all patients receive oral varenicline once daily for 3 days and then twice daily for up to 12 weeks. They also receive a mailed packet containing a welcome letter, description of the intervention services offered, a privacy notice, a Free & Clear Quit Kit (comprehensive education/self-help materials including health smoking substitutions), a phone call to orient the patient to the intervention to which they are randomized, and access to a toll-free support line. All patients undergo a pre-treatment assessment (pre-quit) and 3 post-quit assessments at 21 days, 12 weeks, and 6 months after their original scheduled quit date to determine medication adherence, treatment utilization, point-prevalent smoking outcomes, and continuous nonsmoking.

PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 1,200 patients will be accrued for this study.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Smokes 10 or more cigarettes/day over the past year AND ≥ 5 cigarettes/day within the past week
• Planning to stop smoking in 4-6 weeks
• Member of Group Health Cooperative (GHC) and planning to stay enrolled for the next 6 months
• Eligible for the Free & Clear program
• Enrolled in the COMPASS study using bupropion hydrochloride medication
• No prior participation in GHC's Free & Clear smoking cessation program within the past 6 months

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• In good general health
• Sufficient verbal and written English
• Dependable access to a telephone and the Internet
• Not currently drinking ≥ 14 alcoholic drinks per week and/or binge drinking ≥ 2 times in the past month
• Not pregnant or nursing
• No plan to become pregnant
• No severe chronic heart disease (e.g, myocardial infarction within the past 3 months)
• No severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that ever required hospitalization or oxygen treatment
• No diagnosis of or treatment for a psychotic disorder (e.g., schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or mania)
• Not having certain kidney problems

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• See Disease Characteristics
• No concurrent use of medications contraindicated with bupropion hydrochloride or known to lower seizure threshold (e.g., antidepressant, antipsychotic, monamine oxidase inhibitor, or protease inhibitor)
• No concurrent use of recreational or street drugs
• No concurrent use of bupropion hydrochloride or nicotine replacement therapy
• No concurrent cimetidine, metformin, phenformin, pindolol, procainamide
• Not on dialysis