Contingency management for cigarette smokers with depressive symptoms

Abstract

Despite depressive symptoms being very common among smokers from the general population, few studies have examined the effects of depressive symptoms on smoking treatment outcomes, and even less research has been carried out in the context of contingency management (CM). The authors conducted a secondary analysis to assess the interrelation between treatment condition, depressive symptoms and treatment outcomes among treatment-seeking smokers. The sample was made up of 147 treatment-seeking smokers who were randomly allocated 2 treatment conditions: cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT; n = 74), or CBT + CM (n = 73). CBT was applied in 1-hr group-based sessions over 6 weeks. The CM protocol was voucher-based with maximum earnings of €300 (US$339). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II. Smoking abstinence was verified though cotinine and carbon monoxide. Several analyses were conducted to explore the effect of treatment condition and baseline depressive symptoms on treatment outcomes, as well as the effect of treatment condition and smoking status on depressive symptoms. The CBT + CM condition was more effective than CBT, independent of depressive symptoms. The presence of depressive symptoms decreased the number of days of continuous smoking abstinence. Participants with a greater number of days of continuous smoking abstinence had fewer depressive symptoms than those with fewer days of continuous smoking abstinence. Findings suggest that health care providers should consider encouraging their patients with depressive symptoms to seek smoking cessation services that include both smoking cessation protocols and behavioral activation for mood management, thus maximizing both smoking and depressive outcomes.