Understanding and Treating E-cigarette Use Among Youth

Led by Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, a professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. This team will develop and test several youth-based programs and conduct clinical and behavioral research to learn more about the effect of youth e-cigarette use.

They plan to develop a high school-based intervention to educate youth about e-cigarettes, prevent initiation of vaping, promote quitting among those who already use e-cigarettes and change attitudes and perceptions toward e-cigarettes school-wide. They will also develop a cessation program that will use smartphone-based contingency management for nicotine abstinence in combination with individualized, cognitive behavioral therapy.

Further, they plan to develop and pilot a computerized cognitive behavioral therapy intervention for youth e-cigarette users. Finally, the team will develop a measure of e-cigarette withdrawal in youth and assess the relationship between withdrawal, dependence, treatment outcomes and e-cigarette characteristics such as flavors and devices.