Modeling Stress-precipitated Smoking Behavior for Medication Development

Modeling Stress-precipitated Smoking Behavior for Medication Development

The purpose of this study is to examine whether guanfacine will attenuate the ability of stress to precipitate smoking lapse behavior in treatment seeking and non-treatment seeking daily smokers.

Inclusion Criteria:

• ages 18-60
• able to read and write in English
• smokers

Exclusion Criteria:

• any significant current medical conditions that would contraindicate smoking
• current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV) abuse or dependence of other substances, other than nicotine (or caffeine) dependence
• positive test result at intake appointments on urine drug screens conducted for opiates, cocaine, or benzodiazepines
• women who are pregnant or nursing
• suicidal, homicidal or evidence of severe mental illness
• participants prescribed any psychotropic drug in the 30 days prior to study enrollment
• blood donation within the past 6 weeks
• participants who have engaged in a quit attempt in the past 3 months
• specific exclusions for administration of guanfacine not already specified include: Hypotensive individuals with sitting blood pressure below 90/50 mmHG; EKG evidence at baseline screening of any clinically significant conduction abnormalities, including a Bazett's corrected QT interval (QTc) >450 msec for men and QTc>470 msec for women; known intolerance for guanfacine