Lower self-efficacy and greater depressive symptoms predict greater failure to recover from a single lapse cigarette

Smoking reexposure after a quit attempt (i.e., lapse) increases relapse risk, but lapse recovery is possible. Using a 6-day analogue model of smoking cessation and lapse, this study tested the effect of a single lapse cigarette on the risk of subsequent smoking. Abstinence self-efficacy (ASE) and depressive symptoms (using the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, CES-D) were also examined as hypothesized moderators of lapse recovery.

After receiving cessation counseling and achieving 2 days of incentivized abstinence, 54 daily smokers (mean age: 41 years, 61% African American, 63% male) were randomly assigned to smoke 1 cigarette or to a no-lapse control condition. Participants were then offered monetary incentives to abstain for 3 more days and smoking was monitored.

Compared to the control condition, participants who experienced a lapse had a 2.5 times greater risk of smoking in the first 24 hours Furthermore, a lapse resulted in much greater risk of subsequent smoking compared to the control condition among individuals with lower postquit ASE scores (p = .044) and greater CES-D scores (p = .040).

These findings provide preliminary evidence that a single lapse cigarette after quitting plays a causal role in subsequent smoking and suggest that individuals with lower postquit ASE and greater depressive symptoms are less likely to recover from a lapse. Future research should investigate factors associated with lapse recovery and failure so that effective lapse-responsive strategies can be developed. Laboratory models provide an efficient and controlled method to examine such processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).