Can mindfulness help you to stop smoking?

Can mindfulness meditation help with smoking cessation or addiction? Stop smoking.

Meditation and smoking cessation
Meditation and smoking cessation

Authors: Maglione MA, Maher AR, Ewing B, Colaiaco B, Newberry S, Kandrack R, Shanman RM, Sorbero ME, Hempel S.

Year: 2017

Title: Efficacy of mindfulness meditation for smoking cessation: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Summary: Although there is an enduring presumption that meditation can help people with addiction, few papers have demonstrated significant effects during randomised controlled trials. This study searched five databases in order to produce a meta-study of relevant research. Ten randomised controlled trials investigating the effect of mindfulness for tobacco smoking cessation were identified. The studies had a total of 1192 participants with individual sample sizes from 27 to 412. The studies had a balance of genders (4) or more males than females (6). The average age of participants in the studies was between from 21.5 to 45.9 years and all the research was carried out in the United States of America. The meditation interventions varied from durations of 1 day to eight weeks. Five studies used only mindfulness as the intervention (monotherapy), three used a combination of mindfulness and nicotine replacement, two studies allowed the participants to augment mindfulness therapy with nicotine replacement if desired.

The meta-review found only one study could be rated as good, four were described as fair and the remaining five adjudged to be poor. The point was made that eight of the studies did not disclose if the experimental assessors were ‘blinded’ to participant intervention. Four studies failed to report cessation outcomes and only one reported an a priori power calculation. The headline finding was that mindfulness did not offer significant increases in smoking cessation compared to other interventions. The study highlighted a number of methodological weaknesses in the reported research but acknowledged the preliminary nature of understanding in this area.

Link: www.sciencedirect.com

Author: Stephen

Neuropsychologist researching what happens when a spiritual practice (meditation) is translated to a psychological intervention; what is lost and what is gained from the curative potential? A PhD candidate writing the scientific history mindfulness. Also researching how compassion and explicitly nondual meditation methods influence our physical and mental health. Stephen has decades of personal practice in spiritual and secular forms of meditation, he has also been trained in the Himalayan Science of Mind and Perception (Tsema). Alongside the teaching and research of nondual methods, Stephen trains his own brain every day with Dzogchen practices.

5 thoughts on “Can mindfulness help you to stop smoking?”

  1. Pingback: Is meditation able to help you stop you smoking? – Meditation for Health in Kent (MFHIK)

    1. Thanks,

      Although these are preliminary studies, I’d expect to see evidence of an effect if secular mindfulness was able to support people trying to stop smoking. Strange, most people who meditate for any length of time tend not to smoke or give up. I think this is one of several areas where this is little theoretical or operational similarity between traditional meditation and modern therapeutic versions.

      Good wishes to all

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  3. Maybe if we spend more time meditating throughout the day we won’t have time to smoke? Or do any one of our other bad habits we’ve acquired over the years? Such as drinking too much coffee and tea and eating to many salty snacks? Hmmmmmmmm

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  4. Pingback: The three secrets to meditation and mindfulness – Meditation for Health in Kent (MFHIK)

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