Related Experiment Videos
Cue exposure treatment for smoking relapse prevention: a controlled clinical trial
R Niaura1, D B Abrams, W G Shadel
1Miriam Hospital, Center for Behavioral & Preventive Medicine, Providence, RI 02906, USA.
Aims:
In an additive design, test the efficacy of cue exposure treatment for smoking relapse prevention as an adjunct to current standard cognitive behavioral and pharmacological treatments.
Design:
Randomized, controlled clinical trial.
Setting:
Outpatient behavioral medicine clinic.
Participants:
One hundred and twenty-nine cigarette smokers recruited through newspaper advertisements.
Intervention:
After receiving an initial counseling session for cessation and setting a quit day, 129 smokers were randomly assigned to one of four relapse prevention treatment conditions: (1) brief cognitive behavioral; (2) cognitive behavioral and nicorette gum; (3) cognitive behavioral and cue exposure; and (4) cognitive behavioral and cue exposure with nicorette gum. All smokers met individually with their counselor for six RP sessions.
Measures:
Seven-day, point-prevalence abstinence rates (CO verified) taken at 1, 3, 6 and 12-months post-treatment and time to first slip.
Findings:
All manipulation checks and process measures suggested that the treatments were delivered as intended. There were no significant differences between conditions in point-prevalence abstinence rates or in time to first slip.
Conclusions:
These results call into question the utility of cue exposure treatment for smoking relapse prevention.