Promoting smoking abstinence through Virtual Reality (VR) - Approach Bias Training

Virtual approach-bias retraining for smokers seeking to quit smoking: a randomized controlled trial

Status

Recruiting

Phases

Unknown

Study type

Interventional

Source

ISRCTN

Registry ID

ISRCTN16006023

Enrollment

100

Registered

2019-03-28

Start date

2019-03-01

Completion date

Unknown

Last updated

2019-04-08

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Nicotine addiction Mental and Behavioural Disorders Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of tobacco

Interventions

Participants will be randomly assigned to the experimental or placebo control group, according to an externally constructed randomization plan. 1. TAU (brief behavioral support for smo

about 60 minutes). Afterwards, smokers receive a self-help book (“The Easy Way to Stop Smoking” by Allen Carr) to aid smoking cessation. Smokers in both groups perform six VR-training sessions within

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

All

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion criteria: 1. Smoked for at least six months at least six cigarettes per day 2. Active smokers at study entry 3. Motivated to quit smoking.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion criteria: 1. Current alcohol or drug misuse or dependency 2. Psychiatric illness 3. Insufficient German language skills 4. Uncorrected visual or auditory impairment.

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame
Measured at baseline, post-training and at a 4-week follow-up: 1. Approach bias measured by the assessment version of the Approach-Avoidance Task 2. Self-reported nicotine consumption measured via a questionnaire. In addition, participants will be instructed to log smoked cigarettes when smoking by using a smartphone-based cigarette-tracking app. The logging period will cover 6 weeks, which is the study duration for each participant 3. Abstinence from smoking determined through self-report and biochemically-verified expired CO (Smokerlyzer)	—

Measure

Time frame

Measured at baseline, post-training and at a 4-week follow-up: 1. Approach bias measured by the assessment version of the Approach-Avoidance Task 2. Self-reported nicotine consumption measured via a questionnaire. In addition, participants will be instructed to log smoked cigarettes when smoking by using a smartphone-based cigarette-tracking app. The logging period will cover 6 weeks, which is the study duration for each participant 3. Abstinence from smoking determined through self-report and biochemically-verified expired CO (Smokerlyzer)

—

Secondary

Measure	Time frame
Measured at baseline, post-training and at a 4-week follow-up: 1. Cognitive biases measured by a visual dot-probe task and the Implicit Association Task 2. Smoking behavior assessed using Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND; Heatherton et al., 1991) 3. Motivation to stop smoking assessed using Stages of Change Scale; Prochaska et al., 1991; Thoughts About Abstinence Scale; Hall et al., 1990 4. Cigarette craving assessed using single item craving rating ranging from: 0 = not at all, to 5 = very much 5. Explicit attitudes toward smoking assessed using semantic differential based on Swanson et al., 2001	—

Measure

Time frame

Measured at baseline, post-training and at a 4-week follow-up: 1. Cognitive biases measured by a visual dot-probe task and the Implicit Association Task 2. Smoking behavior assessed using Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND; Heatherton et al., 1991) 3. Motivation to stop smoking assessed using Stages of Change Scale; Prochaska et al., 1991; Thoughts About Abstinence Scale; Hall et al., 1990 4. Cigarette craving assessed using single item craving rating ranging from: 0 = not at all, to 5 = very much 5. Explicit attitudes toward smoking assessed using semantic differential based on Swanson et al., 2001

—

Countries

Germany

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ISRCTN (via WHO ICTRP) · Data processed: Feb 28, 2026