Constructing a trial as a personal lifestyle change project: Participants' experiences in a clinical study for nicotine vaccination

Participants' expectations and experiences of the innovative nicotine vaccine were characterized by ambivalence: Although they complied with the research design, throughout the study they tinkered with discourses, objects, and activities to make them serve their individual goals. They made the concepts of nicotine vaccination and placebo treatment meaningful for quitting, reshaped the meaning of research tests and obligatory visits to serve their own personal goals, and introduced a new element into the trial by creating space to discuss problems that might endanger the quit attempt. In short, the participants constructed the clinical study for nicotine vaccination as their own personal lifestyle change project.