Brief meditation training induces smoking reduction. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • More than 5 million deaths a year are attributable to tobacco smoking, but attempts to help people either quit or reduce their smoking often fail, perhaps in part because the intention to quit activates brain networks related to craving. We recruited participants interested in general stress reduction and randomly assigned them to meditation training or a relaxation training control. Among smokers, 2 wk of meditation training (5 h in total) produced a significant reduction in smoking of 60%; no reduction was found in the relaxation control. Resting-state brain scans showed increased activity for the meditation group in the anterior cingulate and prefrontal cortex, brain areas related to self-control. These results suggest that brief meditation training improves self-control capacity and reduces smoking.

publication date

  • August 5, 2013

Research

keywords

  • Meditation
  • Smoking Cessation

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC3752264

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 84882808948

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1002/hbm.22203

PubMed ID

  • 23918376

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 110

issue

  • 34