Development and evaluation of treatment paradigms for the suppression of smoking behavior

Abstract

A multiple-baseline component-analysis design was employed to assess the effectiveness of three treatment programs for suppressing the cigarette smoking behavior of 24 subjects. Sartiation, cognitive control, and continger shock procedures were evaluated. The results demonstrated a consistent relationship between contingent shock and suppression of smoking. It was further indicated that subjects should be exposed to the number of sessions necessary to achieve total suppression in order to gain maximally from treatment and to avoid relapse. Neither the satiation component nor the cognitive control component was correlated with clear, permanent decrements in smoking frequencies. To date no other treatment program has demonstrated the dramatic effects ofethe contingent shock procedures used in the present study.