TTA Archives 2005-2012

A pair of related studies on smoking cessation by researchers at the University of Oregon, University of Michigan and UCLA, published in Psychological Science, demonstrated not only the effectiveness of text messaging to measure and intervene in those urges, but also identified the brain regions most active in controlling urges to smoke. Both were done with the same group–27 heavy smokers recruited by the American Lung Association in Los Angeles–and using text messaging as reminder and to describe their symptomology. It found that text messaging is at least as effective as more expensive and harder-to-use handheld data collection devices in the “brief interval assessment” of people in smoking cessation programs. In addition, text messaging stimulated parts of the brain most involved in ‘response inhibition’–in other words, resisting smoking. Text messaging changes health behavior: two new studies. University of Oregon release