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How many clinical trials offer a free T-shirt emblazoned with an image of your brain?

A new Johns Hopkins research study that promises the T-shirt will try to help smokers quit by using e-cigarettes.

Perhaps more enticing, the one-year study offers up to $1,690 in compensation to make a total of 16 visits to the Bayview Center in East Baltimore. You may qualify if you are up to 60 years old, currently smoke cigarettes and want to quit.

For comparison purposes, the study is also looking for smokers who are not interested in quitting, as well as ex-smokers who have successfully quit in the past.

What’s involved?

Once enrolled in the study, you’ll receive six MRI scans of less than two hours each, plus several blood draws and medical assessments. And of course, you’ll have to try to stop smoking — with help from 12 weekly one-hour sessions with a trained smoking-cessation counselor.

Smokers who are not looking to quit and ex-smokers can make as few as two visits and be compensated $200 to $400.

The study takes place at the National Institute of Drug Abuse Intramural Research Program, located on the Johns Hopkins Bayview campus at 4940 Eastern Ave, Baltimore, about a 60- to 90-minute drive from most of the Greater Washington area.

Each visit lasts anywhere from one to six hours (for the MRI imaging). At the longer visits, lunch and snacks will be served throughout the day.

May help others quit

“The study investigates brain changes associated with quitting smoking, and we are looking for people who want to quit smoking in a supported setting with the help of our team of trained counselors and doctors,” Dr. Elliot Stein, Chief, Neuroimaging Research Branch and Chief, Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychopharmacology Section at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Intramural Research Program, said in an email.

“The brain activity patterns of non-treatment and ex-smokers will be compared to that of the treatment seekers to help identify what changes in the brain go along with changes in smoking behavior.”

Best of all, by participating, you may be indirectly helping others quit smoking, Stein said.

“We hope to answer the question: What changes in brain activity go along with successfully quitting smoking?” Stein said. “By enrolling in the study as a treatment seeker, you give us the opportunity to learn about what makes a successful quitter.

“If we can identify brain activity patterns that change when you quit smoking, we will be able to better understand how to design new treatment programs in the future to help others quit, too.”

For more information about the study, or to volunteer, call 1-855-207-1157. For information about other clinical trials, call 1-800-535-8254.