Tobacco Cessation

J Dent Educ. 2001 Apr;65(4):340-7

Hypnosis, behavioral theory, and smoking cessation.

Covino NA, Bottari M.

Department of Psychology, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA. ncovino@caregroup.harvard.edu

Although nicotine replacement and other pharmacological treatments head the list of popular interventions for smoking cessation, approaches based on psychology can also assist smokers. Hypnosis, suggestion, and behavior therapies have been offered to patients and studied experimentally for several decades. Although no single psychological approach has been found to be superior to others, psychological interventions contribute significantly to successful treatment outcome in smoking cessation. This article describes common hypnotic and behavioral approaches to smoking cessation and critically reviews some of the findings from clinical and experimental research studies. The authors also offer suggestions regarding treatment and future research.

Addiction. 2002 Jan;97(1):87-93.

The urge to smoke depends on the expectation of smoking.

Dols M, van den Hout M, Kindt M, Willems B.

Department of Medical, Clinical and Experimental Psychology, Maastricht University, The Netherlands. M.Dols@dep.unimaas.nl

AIMS: An earlier study (Dols et al. 2000) suggested that cue-induced urge to smoke depends on the expectation of smoking. The present study tried to replicate the findings under stringently controlled conditions. DESIGN: A 2 (context) x 2 (cues) x 6 (trial) within-subject design. Each smoker entered two different contexts; one context predicted the future occurrence of smoking (i.e. one puff of a cigarette) and one context predicted the non-occurrence of smoking. In each context smokers were exposed to smoking cues (i.e. cigarettes and lighter) or not. SETTING: Laboratory at Maastricht University. PARTICIPANTS: Thirty-two daily smokers, smoking at least five cigarettes a day for at least 2 years. MEASUREMENTS: Participants reported their urge to smoke in each context in the presence and absence of smoking cues using a computerized visual analogue scale (VAS). FINDINGS: The results revealed that the urge to smoke was higher in a context in which smoking was expected relative to a context in which it was not expected. As in the previous study the urge-inducing effect of smoking cues was larger in the smoking context than in the non-smoking context. Moreover, smoking cues did not have a significant effect in the non-smoking context. CONCLUSIONS: It was shown that smoking cues elicit craving due mainly to a generated expectation of the occurrence of smoking and less due to salience or long history of associative learning. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

J Dent Educ. 2001 Apr;65(4):340-7.

Hypnosis, behavioral theory, and smoking cessation.

Covino NA, Bottari M.

Department of Psychology, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA. ncovino@caregroup.harvard.edu

Although nicotine replacement and other pharmacological treatments head the list of popular interventions for smoking cessation, approaches based on psychology can also assist smokers. Hypnosis, suggestion, and behavior therapies have been offered to patients and studied experimentally for several decades. Although no single psychological approach has been found to be superior to others, psychological interventions contribute significantly to successful treatment outcome in smoking cessation. This article describes common hypnotic and behavioral approaches to smoking cessation and critically reviews some of the findings from clinical and experimental research studies. The authors also offer suggestions regarding treatment and future research.