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Creating Dynamic Images of Short-lived Dopamine Fluctuations with lp-ntPET: Dopamine Movies of Cigarette Smoking
Published on: August 6, 2013
Coping with the urge to smoke: A real-time analysis
Gina Merchant1, Kim Pulvers, Richard D Brooks
1Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA. gmerchant@ucsd.edu
Research in Nursing & Health
|January 3, 2013
Summary
Cognitive strategies like positive self-talk help smokers resist urges, increasing the time until they need a cigarette. Behavioral strategies, however, may reduce this time, suggesting a need for targeted coping skills training in smoking cessation programs.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Addiction Research
- Public Health
Background:
- Coping with smoking urges is crucial for successful smoking cessation.
- Nicotine dependence presents significant challenges to quitting.
- Understanding effective coping mechanisms is essential for intervention development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the real-time effectiveness of various coping strategies in resisting the urge to smoke among nicotine-dependent individuals.
- To identify specific cognitive and behavioral strategies that influence the latency to report smoking urges.
Main Methods:
- A laboratory-based study involving 123 nicotine-dependent smokers exposed to a tempting smoking environment.
- Latency to report the urge to smoke was the primary outcome measure.
- Coping strategies employed by participants were recorded and analyzed as predictors.
Main Results:
- A small positive correlation was found between cognitive-specific strategies (e.g., positive self-talk) and latency to smoke (r = .19, p < .05).
- A small negative correlation was observed between behavioral-general strategies (e.g., looking out the window) and latency to smoke (r = -.23, p < .01).
Conclusions:
- Cognitive-specific coping strategies appear to be more effective in delaying the urge to smoke compared to behavioral-general strategies.
- Smoking cessation interventions should incorporate training in cognitive-specific coping mechanisms to enhance urge resistance.
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