This post was originally published on June 5, 2015.
If you’re one of those smokers who wants to quit, has tried to quit, has quit for a while and then slipped or can’t quit at all, it’s maddening to watch others around you stop cold turkey without a problem. Some of these people might just be blessed with a non-addictive personality—you know, those bizarre folks who can smoke a cigarette here and there without getting hooked and drop their smoking habit without any real effort.
Still, there are those who do have the addictive gene and manage to quit for good, despite their wonky wiring. If you’re the addicted type, it’s easy to hate these guys even more. But it may just be you need a little extra help to get the job done, whether it’s through the patch, hypnosis, counseling, a 12-step program, nicotine gum, yoga, a step-by-step A to Z guide, or all of the above. And guess what? A brain scan might tell you early on whether you could use that extra help.
Big Science
The addicted type, at least where smoking is concerned, boils down to brain chemistry. Joseph McClernon, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, has been examining the brain for clues as to why some people can quit easily and others fail miserably. After running MRI scans on 85 smokers who lit up at least 10 times a day, he discovered the neurobiological root of the problem.
The scans revealed that those who might have a harder time quitting have a saturation of brain neurons in the insula, a part of the brain that governs cravings and urges. Buried deep in the brain, it’s a sort of hybrid between the limbic system (the older and more reactive, emotional brain that also propels us to fuck people and stuff our faces) and the cerebral cortex (which governs memory, logic, consciousness and self-control). The less rich the neural networks in the insula, the less likely the person is to have an “addictive personality.”
“We’ve known for a while that some people seem to be able to quit and other people can’t,” says McClernon. “This gives us a better sense of what neural mechanisms might underlie those differences.”
A chain-smoker who’s gotten the brain scan and received bad news about his or her overly saturated insula might say, “Okay, so where does that leave me?” And it’s a good question.
A Master Plan?
McClernon is hoping that scanning brains of smokers who want to quit will help determine how much support they need to be successful. Those with insula that’s not rich with networks of brain neurons may be able to quit with little support.
“Some smokers might benefit from more intensive, longer duration or even different types of interventions to stop smoking,” says McClernon. “They might need a higher, different level of care to help them make it through.”
There’s also hope that one day scientists will be able to manipulate the insula by getting in there and tweaking it so the neural networks aren’t so rich. At the moment, however, how to do this is sci-fi or fantasy at best.
It’s a decent enough plan to go in for a brain scan if you’re about to quit, but is it really worth the money to determine how much support you’d need? Chances are a heavy-duty smoker would be more apt to seek various smoking cessation tools anyway, without billing the insurance company—or his own bank account—$5,500.
Still, it’s a good start toward helping people make better sense of their addiction. After all, being aware that you are neurologically wired to have a harder time quitting might help you take preemptive action to get help so you don’t do it alone and suffer the pains of failure. This knowledge can also potentially help those of us who fall into the hope-to-die smoker category beat ourselves up less.
So why not call up a helpline right now and put that disgusting habit to rest?
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