Yoga for Smoking Cessation Feasibility Study

Cigarette smoking is the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality among adults in the United States. Smoking, and quitting smoking may be especially problematic for women. Our prior research has demonstrated that traditional aerobic exercise (e.g., brisk walking, bicycling) improves cessation outcomes among women. Exercise appears to reduce the effects of nicotine withdrawal and improves cessation outcomes by improving mood and reducing weight gain. yoga that shares many of the same properties of the traditional aerobic exercise that has been shown to be an efficacious adjunct to smoking cessation treatment. Moreover, some features of yoga, including a focus on breathing, meditation, stress reduction and enhanced mood are likely to have special relevance to smokers who are trying to quit. Thus, yoga may prove to be a more efficacious complimentary treatment for smoking cessation than traditional aerobic exercise.

The goal of this proposal is to conduct an initial investigation of the efficacy of providing Yoga as an adjunct to cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) for smoking cessation. Adult women smokers (n=72) will be recruited through newspaper advertisements and will be randomly assigned to either: (1) CBT plus Yoga , or (2) CBT plus contact control. All study participants will be given a sub-maximal exercise stress test to ensure that they are safe to exercise. Yoga sessions will be conducted twice weekly for 12 weeks, and will be lead by certified instructors in yoga. Smoking cessation sessions will be conducted once per week for 12 weeks and will be lead by Masters or PhD level specialists in smoking cessation. Differences in post-treatment (12 week) cessation rates (7-day point prevalence abstinence) will provide data for estimates of effect size between conditions. This effect size estimate is necessary in order to calculate power estimates for a major clinical trial.

Inclusion criteria

• healthy female smokers
• ages 18-65
• smoke 10+ cigarettes a day
• sedentary (not exercising more than 2 times per week)

Exclusion criteria

• major depression
• hypertension
• more than 1 year previous yoga experience
• current experience with yoga or smoking cessation treatment