Objectives: Combined smoking and heavy drinking is a significant health burden. Varenicline, an efficacious tobacco pharmacotherapy that also shows promise for drinking, has yielded mixed results among heavy-drinking smokers. This pilot study investigated integrated tobacco and alcohol counselling plus varenicline for this vulnerable group.
Design: Twelve-week parallel, randomized controlled pilot trial of two behavioural interventions in combination with open-label varenicline. Participants were randomized using computer-generated tables, stratified by sex.
Setting: Outpatient academic medical centre research clinic.
Participants: Volunteers who reported smoking and heavy drinking and sought tobacco or alcohol treatment (N = 26). Intervention. (1) Integrated tobacco + alcohol counselling (INT; n = 13) or (2) counselling focused on their presenting concern (i.e., tobacco or alcohol) (SINGLE; n = 13), plus varenicline (2 mg) for 12 weeks.
Main outcomes: Feasibility/acceptability, smoking quit rates and heavy drinking.
Results: INT feasibility/acceptability was high among men but not women. More participants quit smoking in INT than SINGLE. This outcome was only in men, not significant, but had a medium effect size. Both conditions yielded significant drinking reductions.
Conclusion: Integrated tobacco and alcohol behavioural counselling plus varenicline may be feasible and promote smoking cessation among men who smoke and drink heavily, but a larger sample is needed to replicate this finding.
Introduction: Recent evidence suggests that quitline text messaging is an effective treatment for smoking cessation, but little is known about the relative effectiveness of the message content.
Aims: A pilot study of the effects of gain-framed (GF; focused on the benefits of quitting) versus loss-framed (LF; focused on the costs of continued smoking) text messages among smokers contacting a quitline.
Methods: Participants were randomized to receive LF (N = 300) or GF (N = 300) text messages for 30 weeks. Self-reported 7-day point prevalence abstinence and number of 24 h quit attempts were assessed at week 30. Intent-to-treat (ITT) and responder analyses for smoking cessation were conducted using logistic regression.
Results: The ITT analysis showed 17% of the GF group quit smoking compared to 15% in the LF group (P = 0.508). The responder analysis showed 44% of the GF group quit smoking compared to 35% in the LF group (P = 0.154). More participants in the GF group reported making a 24 h quit attempt compared to the LF group (98% vs. 93%, P = 0.046).
Conclusions: Although there were no differences in abstinence rates between groups at the week 30 follow-up, participants in the GF group made more quit attempts than those in the LF group.
Introduction: Studies have shown that Text2Quit and other mobile cessation programs increase quit rates in adult smokers, but the mechanism of effects and user experiences are not well understood.
Aims: This study reports on participants' experiences with the program and explores aspects of the program that they liked and disliked.
Methods: Self-reported experiences of the program were collected through a follow-up survey conducted one month after enrollment (n=185). Participant responses to open-ended items were dual coded by independent coders.
Results: Overall participants agreed that they liked the program (4.2/5), that the program was helpful (4.1/5) and that they would recommend the program to a friend (4.3/5). Top reasons for liking the program included that it served as a constant reminder of quitting (17.8%), the content (16.7%), the encouragement provided (13.3%), and the on-demand tools (12.2%). Top reasons for disliking the program were message frequency (20.5%), content (7.0%), and the lack of personal interaction (7.0%).
Conclusions: The constancy of messaging was both liked as a reminder and disliked as an annoyance. Future programs might be improved by pre-testing and customizing the content based on user preferences, and by adding in human interactions, while keeping a supportive tone and offering on-demand tools.

