# Future self: An episodic future thinking intervention for comorbid tobacco use disorder and bipolar disorder

> **NIH NIH K23** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2024 · $196,218

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
Individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) are impacted by high rates of cigarette smoking and low quit rates. As
such, there is a need to intervene on tobacco use among individuals with BD though, to date, there remain few
effective treatments for addressing tobacco use in this population. Delay discounting, or the tendency to
devalue a reward with increasing time to reward receipt, is a mechanistic process that is common to both BD
and tobacco use. Specifically, studies suggest that individuals with BD and tobacco use, respectively, prefer
smaller, immediate, rewards over larger, delayed rewards. The goal of this proposal is to assess the feasibility
and acceptability of a 6-session episodic future thinking intervention (“Future Self-BD”) for decreasing delay
discounting among individuals with BD and comorbid tobacco use disorder. Future Self-BD involves the vivid
mental simulation of positive future events that participants anticipate will be benefited by smoking cessation.
The primary hypotheses of this study are that Future Self-BD will be highly acceptable and feasible. We also
hypothesize that, as exploratory outcomes, Future Self-BD will be associated with reductions in delay
discounting as well as increased likelihood of attempting any smoking cessation treatment, increased
motivation to quit smoking, and increased self-efficacy for smoking abstinence, compared to a control
intervention (Daily Check-Ins). All participants will also receive brief cognitive-behavioral based smoking
cessation counseling. The proposed study will occur alongside core training activities to establish expertise in
the development and adaptation of psychosocial interventions (especially for serious mental illness), clinical
trials methodology for tobacco use disorder, and advanced statistical modeling. The training plan will be
implemented under the expert guidance of Dr. Louisa Sylvia (Primary Mentor), Dr. A. Eden Evins (Co-Mentor),
Dr. Dustin Rabideau (Advisor), Dr. Leonard Epstein (Consultant), and Dr. Warren Bickel (Consultant). This
combined research and training program will enable the candidate to become an independent clinical research
scientist specializing in the intersection between serious mental illness and comorbid substance use disorders.
There is a need for adjunctive behavioral interventions that can address the burden of tobacco use in BD, and
this intervention holds great promise as a potential pathway for decreasing the over-valuation of short-term
rewards that is in turn linked to smoking behavior.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10807280
- **Project number:** 1K23DA058051-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Alexandra Kate Gold
- **Activity code:** K23 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $196,218
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-05-01 → 2029-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10807280

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10807280, Future self: An episodic future thinking intervention for comorbid tobacco use disorder and bipolar disorder (1K23DA058051-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10807280. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*