Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Nov;33(11):1394-1401.
doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2008.06.018. Epub 2008 Jul 2.

The role of negative affect in risk for early lapse among low distress tolerance smokers

Ana M Abrantes  1 , David R Strong  2 , Carl W Lejuez  3 , Christopher W Kahler  4 , Linda L Carpenter  2 , Lawrence H Price  2 , Raymond Niaura  2 , Richard A Brown  2
Affiliations

The role of negative affect in risk for early lapse among low distress tolerance smokers

Ana M Abrantes et al. Addict Behav. 2008 Nov.

Abstract

Individual differences in the ability to tolerate negative affect due to psychological and/or physical discomfort (e.g., distress tolerance) are emerging as an important predictor of smoking cessation outcomes. The purpose of this study was to build on existing evidence by exploring the relationship between levels of distress tolerance (DT) and negative affect on quit date in relation to risk for early lapse. Eighty-one smokers (48% female; M age=42.6 years) who completed laboratory-based, behavioral distress tolerance tasks prior to an unaided quit attempt were categorized into low, average, and high persistence on the tasks. Low persistence smokers were significantly more likely to lapse on the assigned quit day. Among smokers able to achieve abstinence on quit day, low persistence smokers demonstrated higher levels of negative affect and urges compared to high persistence smokers. Further, negative affect-related risk for early lapse was strongest among those with low persistence. These findings suggest that smokers low in distress tolerance may be particularly vulnerable to very early lapse to smoking and that increases in negative affect may contribute to the risk for early lapse in this high-risk group of smokers.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Changes in negative affect from baseline to quit day across levels of persistence.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Baker TB, Piper ME, McCarthy DE, Majeskie MR, Fiore MC. Addiction motivation reformulated: an affective processing model of negative reinforcement. Psychol Rev. 2004;111(1):33–51. - PubMed
    1. Blondal T, Gudmundsson LJ, Tomasson K, Jonsdottir D, Hilmarsdottir H, Kristjansson F, et al. The effects of fluoxetine combined with nicotine inhalers in smoking cessation--a randomized trial. Addiction. 1999;94(7):1007–1015. - PubMed
    1. Brandon TH, Herzog TA, Juliano LM, Irvin JE, Lazev AB, Simmons VN. Pretreatment task persistence predicts smoking cessation outcome. J Abnorm Psychol. 2003;112(3):448–456. - PubMed
    1. Brown RA, Lejuez CW, Kahler CW, Strong DR. Distress tolerance and duration of past smoking cessation attempts. J Abnorm Psychol. 2002;111(1):180–185. - PubMed
    1. Brown RA, Lejuez CW, Kahler CW, Strong DR, Zvolensky MJ. Distress tolerance and early smoking lapse. Clinical Psychology Review. 2005;25:713–733. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms