title: Pre-cessation depressive mood predicts failure to quit smoking: the role of coping and personality traits.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine whether mood, personality and coping predict smoking cessation and whether the associations of personality and coping are mediated through depressed mood.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multicenter (n = 8) smoking cessation trial.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 600 smokers (> or = 15 cigarettes/day) without current depression who participated in a smoking cessation study.
  
  
  METHODS
  The outcome was continuous abstinence during the last 4 weeks of the 3-month trial: depressed mood was measured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), personality by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and coping by the Revised Ways of Coping Checklist (RWCC).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 14.7% (88/600) were abstainers. Controlling for potential confounders, baseline BDI independently predicted smoking cessation. Smokers with BDI > or = 10 were less likely to quit than those with BDI < 10 (odds ratio: 6.39, 95% CI: 1.44-28.3, P = 0.01). Compared to BDI < 10 smokers, BDI > or = 10 smokers had significantly higher scores for neuroticism and lower scores for extraversion and conscientiousness (NEO-PI-R). On the RWCC, BDI > or = 10 smokers scored higher for blame self, wishful thinking and problem avoidance and they scored lower on problem focus than smokers with BDI < 10. A mediational analysis showed that neither personality traits nor coping skills predicted directly smoking cessation. However, low level of problem focusing and social support seeking predicted a negative outcome via depressed mood.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A BDI score > or = 10, even in smokers who do not meet a current diagnosis of major depression, directly predicts inability to quit. This suggests the utility of assessing depression symptoms in routine smoking cessation care.
authors.affiliation: Groupe Hospitalier Universitaire Pitié-Salpêtrière, Université Pierre and Marie Curie Paris 6 and INSERM U 677, Paris, France. ivan.berlin@psl.aphp.fr
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Berlin
authors.forename: Lirio S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Covey
mesh_terms: D000222:Adaptation, Physiological; D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000523:psychology*