Anxiety sensitivity and smoking variability among treatment seeking smokers.
OBJECTIVE
Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is associated with poor smoking cessation outcomes. One reason may be that smokers with high AS smoke differently (i.e., to manage negative affect and uncomfortable bodily sensations) than other smokers, leading to stronger addiction (due to an affect/sensation based and thereby highly variable rather than a regular smoking routine). Thus, we examined the relationship between AS and smoking variability in a group of treatment-seeking smokers.


METHODS
Participants (N= 136; 52.2% female; Mage= 44.19 years, SD = 11.29) were daily smokers with elevated AS (AS≥20 on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index 16-item at prescreen) recruited as part of a larger randomized controlled trial for smoking cessation. Most participants were Caucasian (73%), educated (with 76% attending some college), unmarried (73%), and employed full-time (56%). They smoked, on average, 17 cigarettes per day.


RESULTS
Consistent with prediction, a regression analysis of baseline assessments and a longitudinal analysis with multilevel modeling (MLM) both showed higher AS was associated with greater variability in cigarettes smoked per day while controlling for gender, age, ethnicity, and income.


CONCLUSIONS
This finding encourages investigation of how AS might interact with clinical strategies using a fixed smoking taper as part of quit attempts.
Department of Psychology & Institute for Mental Health Research, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
Mark B
MB
Powers
Department of Psychology & Institute for Mental Health Research, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
Michelle L
ML
Davis
Department of Psychology & Institute for Mental Health Research, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
Brooke Y
BY
Kauffman
Department of Psychology & Institute for Mental Health Research, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
Scarlett O
SO
Baird
Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX; Department of Behavioral Science, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.
Michael
M
Zvolensky
Department of Psychology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX.
David
D
Rosenfield
Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego, CA.
Bess H
BH
Marcus
Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Baton Rouge, LA.
Timothy S
TS
Church
Department of Psychology, Howard University, Washington, DC.
Georita
G
Frierson
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA.
Michael W
MW
Otto
Department of Psychology & Institute for Mental Health Research, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX.
Jasper A J
JA
Smits
Anxiety Sensitivity; Smoking; Variability
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