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Mindfulness meditation may improve self-control, reduce smoking

Behavioral training such as mindfulness meditation may be an effective treatment approach for addiction, even among individuals with no intention to quit, according to findings in Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

“We are interested in trying to probe how repeated use of drugs ultimately influences our ability to control our desires,” Nora Volkow, MD, director of the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a press release. “We are starting to work through how drugs affect areas of the brain that normally enable us to self-regulate, to create goals and to be able to achieve them, and how those changes influence the behavior of the person addicted.”

Nora Volkow

A study conducted by Yi-Yuan Tang, PhD, of Texas Tech University, and colleagues enrolled 60 undergraduate students, of which 27 were smokers and 33 were non-smokers, into an integrative body-mind training program that used relaxation training techniques. Half of the study cohort received mindfulness mediation training and half received relaxation technique training. Brain scans, self-report questionnaires and carbon monoxide measurements were conducted at baseline and 2 weeks later, after 5 hours of 30-minute training sessions.

Study participants entered the study expecting to learn about meditation and relaxation techniques for stress reduction and cognitive improvement during the study, according to researchers.

Despite many students reporting they smoked the same number of cigarettes before and after training, those who received mindfulness mediation training exhibited a 60% reduction in smoking.

Yi-Yuan Tang

“The students changed their smoking behavior but were not aware of it,” Tang said in the release. “When we showed the data to a participant who said they had smoked 20 cigarettes, this person checked their pocket immediately and was shocked to find 10 left.”

Researchers used self-report responses to determine if intention influenced reduction in smoking. They found that conscious intention did not significantly affect smoking reduction, suggesting that brief mindfulness meditation improves self-control and reduces smoking even without a conscious intention to do so.

“Mindfulness meditation, as well as other strategies that are aimed at strengthening self-control, are likely to be useful for the management of addiction, but not necessarily for everybody,” Volkow said. “However, understanding how our brain works when we do interventions that strengthen self-control can also have multiple implications that relate to behaviors that are necessary for health and well-being.” – by Amanda Oldt

Disclosure: The study was supported by the Office of Naval Research and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.