Anyone who has tried knows it well: for a heavy smoker, giving up cigarettes is one of the most difficult challenges you can face in life. And even when you succeed, a misstep is always around the corner: just seeing someone smoking, or smelling burning tobacco, is enough to find yourself in the middle of a withdrawal crisis. New research led by psychologist Golnaz Tabibnia, of the University of California, Irvine, could have the solution: a technique called “cue labeling” (or “labeling of stimuli”) which in the study just published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology has been shown to effectively reduce the desire to smoke.
The research
In the study, 50 American smokers were invited to undergo a series of psychological tests to evaluate “craving”, that unstoppable desire one experiences when faced with the object of one’s addictions. In their case, obviously, the tests involved cigarettes. Placed in front of a series of images showing cigarettes or scenes relating to smoking, the volunteers were asked first to match the images together, and then, in a second battery of experiments, to choose words with which to label them, based on their content.
In the first test, participants could be shown, for example, the image of an ashtray, and then asked to choose between two others the one most similar to the original (perhaps that of another ashtray, preferable to that of a lighter). In the cue labeling test, however, the choice was between two words relating to the habit of smoking (for example “ashtray” and “pack of cigarettes”), of which only one perfectly described the proposed image.
Unexpectedly, the two processes had very different effects: matching the images caused an immediate increase in cravings, while giving them a name reduced it measurably. During the experiments the researchers also monitored the participants’ brain activity. In doing so, they demonstrated that labeling stimuli resulted in reduced activity in a region known as the precuneus, which previous research has associated with cigarette addiction and negative emotions.
The explanation
According to Tabibnia, a possible explanation for the effectiveness of cue labeling could concern the ability to wrest the desire for cigarettes from the unconscious, bringing the stimuli that induce addiction under the control of the conscious part of our mind. A bit like what happens when you give a name to your emotions to try to regain control of them, a “trick” widely used in psychotherapy.
“I think that in the context of emotion regulation, and probably, to a certain extent, also of craving regulation, what you do when you translate feelings into words is in fact to remove them from the automatic and less conscious parts of the brain – confirms the psychologist – to bring them to the more volitional ones, where it is possible to exercise effective control”.
In the case of tobacco addiction, the trick is to identify what is making us have the irresistible urge to light a cigarette, give it a name, for example “smell of smoke” or “coffee”, and wait for the craving to subside, aided by having rationalized our impulse to smoke.
An effective and zero-cost technique
In the experiments carried out by Tabibnia and colleagues, cue labeling proved to be particularly effective in those over 46, for whom the application of the labels practically canceled the desire for cigarettes induced by seeing the images. An interesting effect, because it is precisely from the age of 45 onwards that, given the data in hand, it becomes increasingly difficult to abandon the habit of smoking.
“We need accessible interventions for adults in late middle age and older adults,” confirms the researcher. “Because craving labeling is convenient, essentially free, and free of adverse effects, it offers a very solid cost-benefit profile. It doesn’t reduce cravings in a huge way, but sometimes that little help can be just what you need to avoid making the misstep: if you feel the craving coming over you and you’re having a hard time, try to name what triggers it.” According to Tabibnia, the technique could work for more than just smoking. It will have to be demonstrated with new research, but if you find yourself struggling to abandon some vice, there is certainly no harm in trying.