title: Distress tolerance treatment for early-lapse smokers: rationale, program description, and preliminary findings.
abstract: A significant percentage of individuals attempting smoking cessation lapse within a matter of days, and very few are able to recover to achieve long-term abstinence. This observation suggests that many smokers may have quit-attempt histories characterized exclusively by early lapses to smoking following quit attempts. Recent negative-reinforcement conceptualizations of early lapse to smoking suggest that individuals' reactions to withdrawal and inability to tolerate the experience of these symptoms, rather than withdrawal severity itself, may represent an important treatment target in the development of new behavioral interventions for this subpopulation of smokers. This article presents the theoretical rationale and describes a novel, multicomponent distress-tolerance treatment for early-lapse smokers that incorporates behavioral and pharmacological elements of standard smoking-cessation treatment, whereas drawing distress-tolerance elements from exposure-based and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy-based treatment approaches. Preliminary data from a pilot study (N = 16) are presented, and clinical implications are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Brown Medical School/Butler Hospital, Providence, RI 02906, USA. Richard_Brown@brown.edu
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Kathleen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Palm
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Strong
authors.forename: Carl W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Lejuez
authors.forename: Christopher W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Kahler
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Zvolensky
authors.forename: Steven C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Hayes
authors.forename: Kelly G
authors.initials: KG
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Elizabeth V
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Gifford
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009538:Nicotine / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D016730:Program Development; D012054:Reinforcement, Psychology; D016540:Smoking Cessation / Q000379:methods*; D000074606:Smoking Prevention; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D009538:Nicotine