BioNic · Identifying biomarkers of stress-induced neurophysiological changes and emotion regulation deficits to predict relapse during nicotine abstinence
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2022-01-01 → 2025-05-01
- EU contribution
- €145,941
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
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Results in brief
Identifying biomarkers of stress-induced neurophysiological changes and emotion regulation deficits to predict relapse during nicotine abstinence
Problem/issue being addressed: Tobacco smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disability globally, with 26% prevalence in Europe. Despite available pharmacotherapies and psychological interventions, most users relapse, with only ~15% achieving long-term abstinence beyond 6-12 months. The heterogeneous pathophysiology of nicotine addiction, influenced by age, gender, genetics, and psychiatric comorbidities, complicates treatment outcomes. Currently, no established biomarkers can predict which smokers are at higher relapse risk before quit attempts. Why is it important for the society: The ability to identify smokers who are most vulnerable to relapse before any quit attempt would enable the development of personalized treatment strategies, ultimately improving treatment outcomes and reducing nicotine-related mortality. Our research addresses a significant public health challenge that affects millions of people worldwide and places substantial burden on healthcare systems. Overall Objectives: The BioNic project aimed to elucidate whether an interplay between stress-induced changes in psychophysiological and neurophysiological processes occurring in chronic smokers prior to cessation can predict relapse vulnerability. The primary objectives were to: (i) Determine whether emotion regulation ability, measured via heart rate variability (HRV) in response to psychosocial stress, can serve as a biomarker predicting maintenance of abstinence; (ii) Assess whether changes in neural activity (measured via qEEG spectral analysis and coherence) during stress exposure can predict relapse vulnerability; (iii) Examine whether qEEG changes induced by acute 24-hour abstinence can predict successful treatment outcomes; (iv) Evaluate the reciprocal interactions between stress reactivity, emotion regulation ability, and synchronized neural activity as predictors of nicotine relapse vulnerability. Conclusions of the action: The BioNic project investigated whether stress-induced psychophysiological and neurophysiological changes in chronic smokers could predict relapse vulnerability. The study aimed to determine if: (i) emotion regulation ability (measured via HRV during stress) predicts abstinence maintenance; (ii) neural activity changes (qEEG spectral analysis and coherence) during stress predict relapse risk; (iii) qEEG changes after 24-hour abstinence predict treatment success; and (iv) interactions between stress reactivity, emotion regulation, and neural synchronization predict nicotine relapse vulnerability.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Tobacco smoking is the primary preventable cause of death and disability worldwide. Although there are numerous pharmacotherapies and psychological interventions to assist with smoking cessation, most users relapse following abstinence, while only ~15% of abstinent individuals achieve long-term abstinence of more than 6-12 months. Therefore, there is a need to identify smokers at higher risk for relapse, to facilitate the development of personalized pharmacotherapies for the treatment of nicotine addiction. In this context, BioNic proposes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the unique and/or interactive effects of trait-like vulnerability factors (baseline emotion regulation ability) and biomarkers of state responses to stress (emotion regulation and synchronized neural activation response to stress) prior to smoking cessation, on cravings, abstinence adherence, and response to an established smoking cessation intervention. During this fellowship, the in-depth expertise of the researcher in studying mechanisms underlying relapse to abuse drugs following abstinence using preclinical models, combined with the expertise on human psycho- and neuro-physiological measurements that he will acquire at the Host lab will provide data and publications that will contribute to the identification of biomarkers predicting nicotine relapse vulnerability prior to smoking cessation. This work will unveil a new critical link between emotion regulation deficits and neural activation changes that together will predict maintenance of smoking abstinence. Overall, this fellowship will strengthen the academic profile of the Researcher and will act as a leverage towards securing future research funding and securing a tenure track position in Europe.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITY OF CYPRUS · NicosiaCoordinatorCyprus
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union