Tobacco Research in Youth (TRY)

The Tobacco Research in Youth (TRY) group is a team of researchers, led by Dr. Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, in Yale's School of Medicine dedicated to developing and disseminating the optimal intervention for adolescent tobacco users. We aim to discover the best behavioral and pharmacological combination to enhance quit rates among high-school aged students. We have been recruiting and conducting prevention and cessation programs in over 20 local high schools in Connecticut since 2003. Our current study is aimed at tackling the essential task of understanding and reducing e-cigarette use among youth. Our first goal is aimed at both preventing and reducing e-cigarette use among high school students by adapting existing interventions developed by our group to 1) target e-cigarette use specifically and 2) utilize current technology used by high school students. Our second goal is to develop tools to measure e-cigarette withdrawal among high school youth, as withdrawal is an important barrier to quitting, but there is limited understanding of youth e-cigarette withdrawal and how it impacts youth ability to quit. We also provide most up-to-date evidence-based educational presentations to local schools/communities in an effort to educate students, parents, faculty, administrators, and community members about youth and vaping. Finally, we conduct school-wide tobacco surveys in Connecticut schools to assess perceptions, rates of use, and risk factors for initiation.