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(Reuters Health) – A small study suggests that smokers have an easier time resisting cigarettes when they smell things that they like, such as peppermint or chocolate.
Most adult smokers say they want to quit and many are trying. But about half of smokers who try to quit relapse within two weeks, the researchers note in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.
"There are many approaches that people use to quit smoking, including nicotine-based products (eg, nicotine gum, nicotine patch), medications, and behavioral approaches such as cognitive therapy. behavioral and meditation, "said Michael Sayette, senior author at the University of Pittsburgh.
"But stopping smoking remains an extremely difficult challenge and innovative approaches, either alone or in combination with existing interventions, are absolutely necessary," Sayette said by e-mail.
This study tested a new option – using smokers' cravings for some attractive smells – in 232 smokers who were not trying to quit or were not using any other tobacco substitute, such as nicotine gum or electronic cigarettes.
The researchers asked the participants not to smoke eight hours before the experiment and asked them to take a pack of their favorite cigarettes and a lighter to the laboratory.
Upon arrival, people first felt and noticed different odors generally considered pleasant such as chocolate, apples, peppermint and vanilla, or unpleasant as a chemical derived from mushrooms. Participants also smelled of tobacco leaves and an odorless product that served as a "virgin" or neutral scent for comparison purposes.
The researchers then asked the participants to light a cigarette and hold it in their hands without smoking. After 10 seconds, participants verbally rated their urge to smoke on a scale of 1 to 100 before extinguishing the cigarette and placing it in an ashtray.
Participants then opened a container of the fragrance they thought was the most pleasing, a tobacco scent or perfume and sniffed it once, and then re-evaluated their urge to smoke. They continued to sniff the container they had been given as much as they wanted for the next five minutes, noting their urge to smoke every 60 seconds.
The average need score just after lighting the cigarette was 82.13. Then, regardless of their smell, all participants felt a decrease in their craving for smoking after sniffing the container, but average thirst scores for those who smelled pleasant smells dropped significantly. With a pleasant smell, the thirst scores dropped by 19.3 points on average, 11.7 points for a smell of tobacco and 11.2 points with white.
"Although five minutes do not seem very long, it may be enough to give smokers a critical niche to rethink their work and perhaps leave a situation where the risk of relapse is high," Sayette said.
"It is premature to note definitively the effects of olfactory signals on patients, our participants do not want to quit, we think the results are intriguing and encourage us to continue our research to find out why and for that the olfactory signals could be effective, "Sayette said. added.
"To what extent, in my opinion, could this approach be an effective option to help people smoke less cigarettes in the real world? It certainly deserves further study, "said Dr. Judith Prochaska, a researcher at Stanford University in California. involved in the study, said by email.
"It's unclear if the effects can be replicated outside the lab (in the real world) and if odors can sustain their effects over time," Prochaska added.
Repeated exposure to the same pleasant odors could possibly have a lesser effect on cravings, said Timothy Baker, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health in Madison, who did not participate in the study.
"It may be worth trying to try smokers (trying to quit smoking) to try to sniff a strong and pleasant smell when they want to see if it works for them, "Baker said by e-mail. "However, they should not use this strategy instead of using treatments that we know are effective."
SOURCE: bit.ly/2GncGMw Journal of Psychological Anomaly, online April 15, 2019.
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