Christine Vinci

• Ph.D.
• Associate Member at Moffitt Cancer Center

Several theories have proposed that negative affect (NA) plays a large role in the maintenance of substance use behaviors – a phenomenon supported in laboratory-based and clinical studies. It has been demonstrated that mindfulness meditation can improve the regulation of NA, suggesting that mindfulness may be very beneficial in treating problematic...

Objective: Individuals attempting to quit smoking typically have poor success rates, and the majority fail to maintain long-term abstinence. Although a large body of evidence documents the impact of negative affect on reducing abstinence, there is a much smaller body of research on positive emotions, which could be an important mechanism that is a...

While much of the cue exposure literature for cigarette smoking has focused on external cues, little has been done in the area of exposing participants to internal cues, such as negative affect (NA), despite the important role of such cues in maintaining smoking behavior. Smokers were exposed to an NA mood induction to induce an urge to smoke and t...

Objective: To examine cognitive and affective mechanisms underlying mindfulness-based addiction treatment (MBAT) versus cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and usual care (UC) for smoking cessation. Method: Participants in the parent study from which data were drawn (N = 412; 54.9% female; 48.2% African American, 41.5% non-Latino White, 5.4% Lati...

Background Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Novel interventions are needed to improve smoking cessation rates. Mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) for cessation address tobacco use by increasing awareness of the automatic nature of smoking and related behaviors (eg, reactivity to...

Objective The present study assessed program feasibility and satisfaction among recent‐era veterans who participated in Mindfulness to Manage Moral Injury (MMMI), a live facilitated web‐based 7‐week mindfulness‐based program targeting moral injury among veterans. Method In total, 56 post‐9/11 veterans were recruited with 28 randomized to the MMMI...

e23064 Background: Caregivers of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (allo-HSCT) recipients bear significant responsibilities involving commitment to be available 24/7 up to at least 100 days post-transplant to provide emotional and physical support to their patients. Caregiving for such an extended duration is associated with reduced qua...

Investigators have called for mind-body practices and spiritual and religious approaches for the treatment of moral injury in veterans. Programs and interventions that use mindfulness, meditation, spirituality, prayer, and other techniques span different academic disciplines and can be difficult for investigators and clinicians to identify but are...

Background Cigarette smoke exposure has been linked to systemic immune dysfunction, including for B-cell and immunoglobulin (Ig) production, and poor outcomes in patients with ovarian cancer. No study has evaluated the impact of smoke exposure across the life-course on B-cell infiltration and Ig abundance in ovarian tumors. Methods We measured mar...

Objective : The present study assessed initial evidence of program feasibility, satisfaction, and pre-to post-intervention changes in moral injury symptoms among recent-era veterans who participated in Mindfulness to Manage Moral Injury (MMMI), a live facilitated web-based 7-week mindfulness-based program targeting moral injury among veterans. Meth...

Aims Three smoking cessation studies (CARE, Break Free, Por Nuestra Salud [PNS]) were used to measure changes in average alcohol consumption, binge drinking and alcohol‐related problems during a smoking cessation attempt and to explore co‐action with smoking abstinence. Design CARE and PNS were longitudinal cohort cessation studies; Break Free was...

Purposeof Review The prevalence of problematic substance use is disproportionately higher among sexual and gender minority (SGM) adults compared to adults in the general population. mHealth as a treatment modality could reduce barriers to accessing substance use treatments among SGM populations. Through a qualitative literature search, the current...

Background: The combined use of cigarettes and alcohol is associated with a synergistic increase in the risk of morbidity and mortality. Continued alcohol use during a smoking quit attempt is a considerable risk factor for smoking relapse. As such, there is a need for interventions that address both behaviors concurrently. Mindfulness-based interv...

Objective Augmented reality (AR) is a rapidly developing technology that has substantial potential as a novel approach for addiction treatment, including tobacco use. AR can facilitate the delivery of cue exposure therapy (CET) such that individuals can experience the treatment in their natural environments as viewed via a smartphone screen, addres...

Background: Exposure to cigarette smoke, particularly in early life, is modestly associated with ovarian cancer risk and may impact systemic immunity and the tumor immune response. However, no studies have evaluated whether cigarette smoke exposure impacts the ovarian tumor immune microenvironment. Methods: Participants in the Nurses' Health Stu...

Background Military service puts service members at risk for moral injury. Moral injury is an array of symptoms (e.g., guilt, shame, anger) that develop from events that violate or transgress one's moral code. Objective We describe adaption of in-person mindfulness training program, Mindfulness to Manage Chronic Pain (MMCP), to address symptoms of...

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Objectives The mindful smoking exercise instructs participants to pay attention to a range of experiences while smoking a cigarette with the expectation that it will modify the often automatic process of smoking. Given its theoretical value, mindfulness- and acceptance and commitment therapy–based smoking cessation interventions have usually includ...

Smoking cessation treatments that are easily accessible and deliver intervention content at vulnerable moments (e.g., high negative affect) have great potential to impact tobacco abstinence. The current study examined the feasibility and acceptability of a multi-component Just-In-Time Adaptive Intervention (JITAI) for smoking cessation. Daily smoke...

Objective: Cue-exposure therapy (CET) aims to extinguish conditioned cue reactivity (CR) to aid in smoking cessation. A key disadvantage of extant CET is its limited ability to generalize extinction to the real world. Our team developed a set of augmented reality smoking-related and neutral cues that can appear in real-time in smokers' natural env...

Objectives Caregivers of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) cancer patients experience high caregiver burden and carry a significant amount of responsibility. Mindfulness has the potential to lessen caregiver burden by aiding in stress management. To date, no studies have examined the efficacy of mindfulness in reducing caregiver b...

Background Cigarette smoking is related to greater cancer incidence, worse cancer-related clinical outcomes, and worse patient quality of life. Few studies have evaluated the role of smoking in patients’ experiences of cancer-related symptom burden. This study examined relationships between smoking and total symptom burden as well as the incidence...

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, many research and clinical teams have transitioned their projects to a remote-based format, weighing the pros and cons of making such a potentially disruptive decision. One key aspect of this decision is related to the patient population, with underserved populations possibly benefiting from the increased reac...

There is a significant research-to-practice gap with respect to reaching underserved populations with evidence-based tobacco cessation treatments. Increasing enrollment in evidence-based treatments is necessary to reduce tobacco use and tobacco-related health inequities. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate whether Motivation And Proble...

Emerging data suggest that exposures in early life may affect ovarian development and contribute to ovarian cancer risk. We evaluated the association between early life physical activity and risk of ovarian cancer in adulthood in two large prospective cohorts, the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and NHSII. In total, analyses included 28 232 NHS particip...

Objective: Moral injury (an inner conflict [or cognitive dissonance] used to describe psychological, ethical, and/or spiritual conflict experienced when an individual's basic sense of humanity is violated) has been associated with suicidal ideation among military populations. However, mechanisms linking moral injury to suicidal ideation, particula...

Objective: Racial/ethnic minorities face unique stressors, including perceived discrimination (PD), that may increase the difficulty of quitting smoking relative to the general population of smokers. The current study examines the impact of acute PD on smoking lapse during a quit attempt, as well as potential mechanisms linking PD to lapse among S...

Background: Ovarian cancer risk in adulthood may be affected by early life exposure to tobacco smoke. We investigated this relationship in two large prospective cohorts, the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and NHSII. Methods: In total, analyses included 110,305 NHS participants (1976–2016) and 112,859 NHSII participants (1989–2017). Self-reported early...

Despite extinction-based processes demonstrating efficacy in the animal extinction and human anxiety literatures, extinction for substance use disorders (SUD) has shown poor efficacy (i. e., cue exposure treatment [CET]). Reasons for this lack of success include common threats to extinction, such as renewal and reinstatement. In recent decades, res...

Background: Ovarian cancer risk in adulthood may be affected by early life exposure to tobacco smoke. We investigated this relationship in two large prospective cohorts, the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and NHSII. Methods: In total, analyses included 110 305 NHS participants (1976-2016) and 112 859 NHSII participants (1989-2017). Self-reported ear...

Background Cigarette smoking has numerous health consequences and is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Mindfulness has the ability to enhance resilience to stressors and can strengthen an individual’s ability to deal with discomfort, which may be particularly useful when managing withdrawal and craving to smoke. Ob...

The combined use of cigarettes and alcohol is associated with an increased risk of morbidity and mortality. Yet, efficacious interventions that address both behaviors concurrently are lacking. Smoking cessation and alcohol modification not only garner health benefits, but there is also value in addressing alcohol use in the context of smoking cessa...

Background The recent widespread availability of augmented reality via smartphone offers an opportunity to translate cue exposure therapy for smoking cessation from the laboratory to the real world. Despite significant reductions in the smoking rates in the last decade, approximately 13.7% of the adults in the United States continue to smoke. Smoki...

Background Cue exposure for extinguishing conditioned urges to smoking cues has been promising in the laboratory, but difficult to implement in natural environments. The recent availability of augmented reality (AR) via smartphone provides an opportunity to overcome this limitation. Testing the ability of AR to elicit cue-provoked urges to smoke (i...

Objectives: Previous studies have focused on the role of mindfulness in improving sleep health. Sleep health may also increase daily mindfulness; however, this potential directionality is understudied, with a lack of research on healthcare workers who need high-quality sleep and mindful attention for patient care. This study examined whether sleep...

Augmented reality (AR) is a rapidly emerging technology that superimposes digital objects onto real-world scenes as viewed in real time through a smartphone, tablet, or headset. Whereas AR has been adopted for retail, entertainment, and professional training, it also has potential as a novel, mobile, and efficacious treatment modality for psycholog...

Introduction Previous research shows that insufficient and poor sleep is associated with perceiving more stressors the following day. Sleep may also be associated with daily mindfulness, a state in which one is highly aware and focused on the present moment without evaluating or judging that moment. The association between high mindfulness and bett...

TPS11043 Background: Rates of burnout and career dissatisfaction have declined slightly, but remain high among oncologists (Berg, AMA 2020). As hematology oncology fellows prepare to join this workforce, the ACGME now mandates wellness be a part of their training curriculum. Yet, there are few, if any, structured and effective programs specifically...

Purpose of review: Cigarette smoking is the primary cause of cancer and is the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is one of the most well-established and efficacious interventions for smoking cessation. The study of mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) has increased exponentially in recent ye...

Despite high levels of stress, there are few empirically supported stress management interventions for caregivers of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HCT) cancer patients. This study examined the feasibility, acceptability, and various stress-related outcomes from pre- to post-treatment of a pilot, single-arm trial of a 6-week mindful...

Hispanics/Latinx (H/Ls) are the largest ethnic minority group in the U.S., and three of the four leading causes of death are associated with problematic alcohol use. This study examined the relationship between mindfulness and alcohol use among H/Ls and whether differences emerged by sub-ethnicity. Participants (N = 341; 49.7% female; average age=2...

Objective. Most attempts at smoking cessation are unsuccessful, and stress is frequently characterized both as a momentary precipitant of smoking lapse and a predictor of subsequent changes in other key precipitants of lapse. The current study examined longitudinal associations among stress, multiple precipitants of lapse, and lapse among smokers a...

Introduction Caregivers of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) patients experience high levels of stress, and a better understanding of the commonly used coping strategies can guide intervention development. Mindfulness-based interventions are one promising approach that could augment and extend existing coping strategies. This study exa...

10508 Background: Rates of physician burnout, depression, and career dissatisfaction are rising. It is imperative to develop solutions. Studies find mindfulness is an effective therapeutic means for physician burnout, but few programs address this in clinical trainees, specifically hematology oncology fellows. The aims of this pilot study were to d...

Moral injury is hypothesized to develop from witnessing or engaging in events that violate one's beliefs about oneself and has been shown to be associated with negative mental health symptoms. Although there has been an increase in research examining moral injury among military veterans, mechanisms that link moral injury to mental health outcomes a...

Background: Low health literacy (HL) is associated with poor health status and outcomes. Racial/ethnic minorities in the United States disproportionately experience low HL and HL-related health disparities. Among Latinos, acculturation is associated with health outcomes, but little is known about the relationship between acculturation and HL. Objec...

Objective: Among combat veterans, moral injury (i.e., the guilt, shame, inability to forgive one's self and others, and social withdrawal associated with one's involvement in events that occurred during war or other missions) is associated with a host of negative mental health symptoms, including suicide. To better inform and tailor prevention and...

Research has suggested that individuals with greater dispositional mindfulness (i.e., nonjudgmental, present-focused attention) are more likely to quit smoking, but the underlying mechanisms are unclear. This study investigated mechanisms linking mindfulness and early smoking abstinence using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Participants were...

High levels of stress have been reported amongst allogeneic HCT cancer caregivers and few treatment programs exist to provide stress management skills to this population. A pilot study was conducted to determine the feasibility and acceptability of a six-session mindfulness-based program designed specifically to meet the needs of allogeneic HCT can...

Informal caregivers of allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplant patients experience significant levels of stress throughout the caregiving process. One strategy that has been shown to aid in stress management in other populations is mindfulness. The goal of this study was to understand caregivers' experiences with mindfulness and evaluate their rec...

Background A well-established gender-differentiated association between acculturation and current smoking exists among Latino adults. There are far fewer studies on the potential influence of acculturation on smoking cessation, and extant findings are mixed. Purpose Using a multidimensional measure of acculturation, the current study examined the...

Despite considerable health risks due to lower levels of estrogen production and the compounding antiestrogenic effects of nicotine, postmenopausal females continue to smoke. These females face significant barriers to cessation, including negative affect, weight concerns, and menopausal symptom severity. The current pilot study explored the effect...

Ambulatory assessment of smoking behavior has greatly advanced our knowledge of the smoking cessation process. The current article first provides a brief overview of ecological momentary assessment for smoking cessation and highlights some of the primary advantages and scientific advancements made from this data collection method. Next, a discussio...

Objective: Smoking-related illnesses are the leading cause of death among Latinos, and within this ethnic group, Mexican Americans are the largest subgroup in the U.S. Understanding the factors associated with successful smoking cessation could inform interventions for this population. Although socioeconomic status (SES) is a powerful predictor of...

The relationship between cigarette smoking and depressive symptoms is well established. Dispositional mindfulness has been associated with lower depressive symptoms, lower smoking dependence, and higher odds of smoking cessation. Given that mindfulness is multi-faceted, the current study examined which facets of mindfulness might mediate the relati...

Objective: There is a high occurrence of sexual assault (SA) and intimate partner violence (IPV) among people with substance use disorders and an established association between substance use and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but no research has examined associations between combinations of these traumas and PTSD symptom profiles among peo...

Mindfulness is a multi-faceted construct, and research suggests that certain components (e.g., Acting with Awareness, Nonjudging) are associated with less problematic alcohol use. Recent research has examined whether specific drinking motives mediate the relationship between facets of mindfulness and alcohol use. The current study sought to extend...

Mindfulness-based strategies show promise for targeting the construct of impulsivity and associated variables among problematic alcohol users. This study examined the moderating role of intervention (mindfulness vs relaxation vs control) on trait impulsivity and three outcomes examined post-intervention (negative affect, positive affect, and urge t...

Distress tolerance (DT), the perceived or actual ability to tolerate negative emotional or physical states, is inversely related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in civilian, community samples. No studies to date have examined the relationship between DT and PTSD in clinical samples of veterans with a comorbid diagnosis of PTSD and...

Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is a time-limited, goal-oriented psychotherapy that has been extensively researched and has benefits in a number of psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, obsessive-compulsive and tic disorders, personality disorders, eat...

Consider CBT for patients who you suspect have anxiety or trauma-related disorders. The benefits of this short-term, goal-oriented approach are detailed in this review and in the accompanying evidence-based table.

Within exposure-based trauma treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), imagery vividness during imaginal exposure of the traumatic memory is an understudied but potentially important predictor of treatment outcome. Further, to our knowledge, this relationship has only been studied in women to date, and never among individuals with PTSD a...

Introduction: Problematic alcohol use is highly comorbid with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and prior work has demonstrated that individuals with PTSD may self-medicate with alcohol in an effort to reduce their symptoms. The combination of impulsivity and alcohol-related expectancies influences the development of problematic drinking patte...

Introduction: The present study attempted to further elucidate the relationship between self-reported smoking motives and affect in college students. Method: Smoking motives were measured via self-report, and following a laboratory negative affect (NA) mood induction, urge to smoke was assessed via three questions. Participants were college stud...

Although social anxiety appears to be a risk factor for smoking and nicotine dependence, little work has identified factors that may play a role in these relationships. The current study examined the role of gender and smoking motives in these relationships among 945 (73.0% female) undergraduates, 91 of whom were current daily smokers. Among women,...

Emerging prospective work suggests that individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) may be at particular risk for developing substance use disorders (SUD). Yet, little is known about why this may be so. Most research has utilized existing theories of substance use (e.g. tension reduction-based theories) to understand SAD-SUD relations. However,...

Female smokers often have higher levels of eating disorder symptoms than non-smokers, and concerns about eating and weight might interfere with smoking cessation. Thus, it is critical to identify factors to promote healthier eating and body image in this population. Initial research suggests that specific aspects of trait mindfulness predict lower...

Compared to smokers in the general population, smokers with schizophrenia smoke more cigarettes per day and have higher nicotine dependence and biochemical indicators of nicotine intake. They also have more intense smoking topography and greater positive smoking expectancies. Little is known about the relationship between smoking and schizotypy, de...

Weight concerns are common among female smokers and may interfere with smoking cessation. It is imperative to identify protective factors to lessen the likelihood that smoking-related weight concerns prompt smoking and hinder cessation efforts. Mindfulness is one potential protective factor that might prevent weight concerns from triggering smoking...

Socially anxious individuals appear especially vulnerable to cannabis-related problems. However, the nature of the social anxiety–cannabis relation remains unclear. The present study examined the timing and specificity of cannabis craving in response to a social anxiety induction task among 82 (71% female) cannabis users randomly assigned to either...

While the link between cigarette smoking and depression symptomatology has been well established, more research is needed to determine how smoking motives are related to depression levels in smokers. Specifically, smoking motives related to the friendship-like attachment to smoking (i.e., affiliative attachment) may play an important role in indivi...