A trial using "brain training" to help smokers give up for good has been launched in Australia.
The Inhibitory Smoking Training (INST) program, trialled at Deakin University's School of Psychology, uses computer-based exercises to train smokers' brains to improve their impulse control.
There are a wide-range of treatments designed to help people quit smoking, however research shows many relapse within six months.
This could be partly due to an impaired ability to control automatic impulses, says neuroscientist Dr Melissa Hayden.
"Recent advances in neuroscience have highlighted that one way to address this difficulty is by retraining people's brains to improve their impulse control," she said.
Tobacco remains the leading cause of cancer in Australia, with an estimated 9021 people to die from lung cancer in 2017, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's most recent Cancer in Australia report.
Lead researcher Associate Professor Petra Staiger says the program only takes 10 to 15 minutes per day for two weeks and there are no negative side effects.
"Quitting aids like patches or gum can sometimes have adverse side effects which negatively impact their uptake and long-term adherence," said Assoc Prof Staiger.
The researchers are looking for smokers wanting to quit, aged between 18 and 60, living in the Melbourne metropolitan area and who smoke at least 10 cigarettes a day.
Cancer Council Australia CEO, Professor Sanchia Aranda, says new research on ways to encourage smokers to quit is always welcome but more investment in established interventions is needed.
"On our analysis, if the Australian government invested an additional $20 million into its successful national mass media campaign highlighting the health harms of smoking, an additional 55,000 premature smoking-caused deaths would be prevented and around $740 million in healthcare costs saved.
"The majority of the millions of Australians who have quit smoking over the past 20 years have done so without specialist clinical interventions and have cited increases in tobacco taxes and the impact of hard-hitting media campaigns as the main incentives for quitting," Prof Aranda said.
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