Funding Source
National Cancer Institute (NCI), R01CA168778
Project Period
9/13/13 – 8/31/16
Principal Investigator
Mary F. Brunette, MD
Other Project Staff
Joelle Ferron, Greg McHugo, Jill Williams, Sheila O’Neill
Project Summary
People with psychotic disorders have high rates of smoking, low rates of quitting, and early morbidity and mortality. Motivational interventions can engage these smokers into cessation treatment, but aren’t available. This three-year randomized controlled trial will assess the efficacy of our novel, single session, web-based intervention among smokers with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders in Chicago and New Jersey.
Public Health Relevance
If we find the decision support system to be effective, this simple website will be able to link a large, previously unengaged group of smokers (those with psychotic disorders) into treatment and will become a key component of a comprehensive strategy to address the persistent high rates of smoking in this group. Further, the simplicity of our program design will be easily translated to use by other high prevalence populations, such as impoverished smokers served by Federally Qualified Health Centers, allowing expansion of this motivational program to engage other hard-to-reach smokers into treatment.